


Back To You

by Hipsher



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, But I wouldn't say it is graphic, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, It gets better I promise, Just make it through chapters 2-4, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Some NCT members are idols, There is some violence in the first chapter, They're not called NCT
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 30,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25868068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hipsher/pseuds/Hipsher
Summary: Summary: You and Mark are all each other have, he’s easily the most important person to you. But something happens and you both are slowly separated, so you work your hardest to be accepted into a college in Korea so you can find your way back to a home with him again.Warnings: There are abuse scenes in the first chapter, I have those bolded and the panic that follows is in italics if you want to skip either of those.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Reader, Mark Lee (NCT) & Reader
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: There are abuse scenes in the first chapter, I have those bolded and the panic that follows is in italics if you want to skip either of those.
> 
> Thank you to @bunny-doyounq for making me ten times more excited to write this and to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me edit!!

“Mark,” you whine drawing out his name. “Come on, let’s do something.” 

Your brother rolls his eyes, never picking them up from his book “I am doing something.” 

“Yeah, now drop that something and come do something different with me,” you respond unphased by his behavior. 

“I think I’m good.” 

You sigh and get up from your side of the shared bedroom “Fine, I’ll just go ask dad if he wants to do anything.” 

Mark doesn’t spare you a glance as you walk out of the room. Your family lives in a small house, two rooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. But seeing as it was only the three of you, you guys never ran into a problem with the arrangement. 

As soon as you leave the room, you see your dad at the kitchen table reading a book “Hey dad, want to do something?”

He smirks and sets the book down “It’s your Sunday and you want to do something?” 

You shrug your shoulders and join him at the table “Well maybe I can use this as an opportunity to get ahead of Mark so he has to ask me to help him for once.” 

“Should that really be your motive for learning?” 

“No, but it’s a good incentive right?”

Your father’s smile falters before responding with “You’re so lucky to be able to learn, and you’re going to look at it as a way to get ahead of your brother? I thought I raised you better than this.” 

You cast your eyes downwards “I’m sorry.” 

He nods his head and picks up his book “It’s okay, it just saddens me to think you only think of your education as a way to get back at your brother.”

You bow your head slightly “Yes, I’m sorry it won’t happen again.”

“I will tell you the next assignment is going to be a book essay. So if you want you can go to the library to look for a book.”

You perk up at the idea of being able to go to the library “Okay, thanks!”

You get up from the table, ready to go beg Mark to go with you. When you walk back into the room, you see Mark already putting on a hoodie.

He tosses one of your own hoodies at you “Library?”

You nod your head before slipping on the hoodie and following him out the door.

“Dad I’m going with y/n to the library.”

“Okay, be safe you two. As always, don’t talk to people you don’t know.”

You both nod your head, opening the door and walking out to the quiet outside. Your family lives in a solitary neighbourhood, one where no one talks to anyone. The closest you ever get to a conversation is the occasional glare from a window. As far as you and Mark know, you both are the only kids in the neighbourhood. No matter how many times you think about it, you always find it weird considering the people you have seen looked around your dad’s age. But it isn’t your place to ask, you know your dad would be mad if you asked about it.

Your house is about a 15 minute walk to the library, and more often than not it’s spent in silence. You have known Mark your whole life, and seeing as he is only a year older than you he has basically known you his whole life. After he turned thirteen, he had started acting differently. He never actively tried to do things with you, he seemed less interested in you. But he always came with you to the library, and he always cared for you when your dad had his bad days.

The library is definitely your favourite place, you love how many different worlds are kept in this one building. You love that you can read about a boy and his dog one week, and about a girl finding her true love in the next week.

So when you see the building in front of you, you can’t keep the bounce out of your step. Mark holds the door open for you, and you make your way towards the young adult section. Mark follows you, but is sure to look at books on the furthest shelf. 

You love the book essays your dad gave, because all you had to do was write three pages describing the book you read and what you liked or didn’t like. While Mark is just as good as you when it came to literature, your dad said he always looked forward to what you have to say.

You already know what book you want, you had seen it last time you had come to visit. After you grab the book, you turn and head to the crime section. You hear Mark sigh behind you as he sets the book he was looking at down and follows you.

“You know you aren’t supposed to be in this section, dad doesn’t like us reading these kinds of books.”

You smile sadly as you run your finger over the spines “I know Mark, I’m not stupid. I can remember to three months ago when I last tried to bring one home.”

**Your father had told you that he hates these kinds of books, but you thought that it was just a personal preference. So when you had found one at the library that looked genuinely interesting about a kidnapping and brought it home, your dad freaked. He screamed at you, hitting you once across the face with the book.**

**“If you want to get a look into this life “ he had said shaking the book at you “then so be it. You forced me to do this, I didn’t want you to ever know about the horrors of this world.”**

**You had spent the next hour tied to the kitchen table, clothes and body drenched in cold water, your cheek stinging from what you could only assume was a cut. After he calmed down, your dad cut you loose and apologized. He just wanted you to understand that this wasn’t something he wanted you or Mark to read about. You just nodded your head and stumbled your way to the bedroom.**

“Y/n, are you okay?” Mark asked, he had shot up from his bed as soon as he heard you turn the knob.

You nodded your head, rubbing your wrists “I’m okay, just really cold.”

Mark nodded his head and got up from the bed “Come on, let’s get you into the bath.”

You nodded your head, going to your closet to grab new clothes as Mark went to the bathroom to start the bath. Your hands shook as you reached out to grab your sweater from off a hanger, after which you turned around to grab your sleeping shorts off your bed. Your dad always took his anger out on you, even when it wasn’t your fault. So this didn’t surprise you, but it didn’t make it any easier.

You shakily made your way out of the room and quickly darted into the bathroom across the hall. Mark was sat at the edge of the tub, watching the water slowly fill up. Once you opened the door, his head snapped up to you. He smiled softly and stood up to greet you, opening his arms for a hug.

Your vision had gotten blurry with tears as you walked into the comfort of his arms. He kissed the top of your head and rubbed your back “It’s okay, it’ll be okay.”

You shakily held onto Mark, this always happened to you after your dad got mad. You don’t, however, understand why. Your dad is the good guy.

“Put it back y/n, I don’t want you to get in trouble,” Mark says, reaching to grab the book, ripping you from the memory.

You pull the book away from his grasp and put it back yourself “Calm down Mark, I just wanted to read the back. The cover is pretty.”

He snorts and rolls his eyes “What happened to not judging a book by it’s cover?”

You shrug “Dad’s words not mine.”

Mark opens his mouth to respond, but is cut off by a woman walking past the aisle, backtracking, and stopping at the end of the aisle to stare at you and Mark. 

“Minhyung?”

Mark looks behind him then back at you, assuming the woman was just confused. But when she repeats the name and walks closer to you two, you can feel Mark tense up.

“What are you doing here, and who is this? Why haven’t you called someone?”

Mark smiles and gently grabs your hand “I’m sorry ma’am, but I think you’re mistaken about who I am.”

She furrows her eyebrows and repeats the name before following up with questions in another language.

“I’m sorry, we don’t speak any other languages. We should get going now, our dad is expecting us,” you can feel Mark slightly pulling on you.

“Wait,” she exclaims, pulling out her phone “wait please. Can I just-” as she’s talking she’s holding her phone to her face. She taps the bottom of the phone a few times before putting it down and smiling. There was a longing look in her eyes “I’m sorry for bothering you, you just look a lot like my friend’s son.”

Mark smiles poliety before pulling you out of the aisle “That was weird.”

You look behind you to see the women standing out of the aisle, talking on the phone while staring at you two “Yeah, definitely. Did you hear what she called you?”

He lets go of your hand as you both make it to the check out station “Yeah, it was foregin sounding. Minhug? Something like that.”

You laugh at his attempt at the name “Minhug? Really?”

He rolls his eyes and smiles with you “Look I don’t know okay? I’m a Canadian kid, leave me alone.”

You’re still laughing as you leave the library, but something feels off about the woman. Why was she so admit that Mark was this ‘Minhug’ person?

“Mark?”

His response is a hum, eyes never looking away from the scenery.

“Should we tell dad what happened?”

He’s silent for a moment before responding “I don’t think we need to. Nothing bad happened, we don’t need to bother him with it.”

You nod your head, he’s right. Mark always knows what’s best, that’s probably why you’re never the one comforting him.

The next two days go by unneventifuly, you and Mark spending your days learning before your dad heads off for the evening shift. The evenings are your favourite, it’s the one time you and Mark are allowed to watch the Tv in your dad’s room. Tonight, you and Mark are sitting side by side and scrolling through Netflix looking for a movie to watch.

“Come on Mark, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

He groans “Y/n I’m not watching that, it sounds so boring.”

“Come on, you don’t see people like us in the movies we’ve seen. And dad, for whatever reason, won’t tell us where mom was from. They look like us, so logically speaking we must be Korean. So let us watch it and see what being Korean is like.”

“Well you look like a frog, but that doesn’t mean you are one.”

You gasp dramatically and before you can respond, you hear the sound of car doors slamming shut “Mark, do you hear that?”

“Hear-”

Before he can finish his sentence there is a knock at the front door “VPD, open up.”

You and Mark exchange looks before you both slowly get up and make your way to the front door. You stop a few feet away and watch as Mark slowly opens the door.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

“I’m Detective Rich and this is my partner Detective Sallow. Does Matthew Qinn live here?”

Mark glances at their badges before nodding his head “Yeah, he’s at work,” there’s a pause before he opens the door wider “would you like to come in?”

You and Mark make eye contact before he tilts his head towards the closet. You nod your head in understanding and go to grab an extra chair. From the kitchen you can hear Mark awkwardly offer the guests something to drink. After shifting some things around you find the extra foldable chair, and as you make your way back you can see the two detectives sitting at the table and Mark filling two glasses of water.

“What is this about detectives, is our dad okay?” Mark asks as you set the chair down, Mark placing the cups in front of the detectives before sitting next to you.

“Mr. Qinn is your father? Were you adopted?” Detective Sallow asks.

Mark shakes his head “Our mom’s Korean.”

“Ah, and where is she now?”

“She passed away when I was one, Mark was only two then,” you say inserting yourself into the conversation.

“So you’re Mark,” Detective Rich says writing something down before turning to you “and you are?”

“I’m y/n.”

He nods his head and writes that down too, something about being logged makes you uncomfortable and you send a glance to Mark. He shifts a little in his chair and clears his throat.

“How can we help you? We aren’t really supposed to have people over this late.”

Detective Sallow leans forward “Where does your dad work?”

Mark glances nervously at you before he answers “We uh, we don’t know. He doesn’t like to talk about his life outside of the house.”

The detectives look at each other, Detective Sallow continuing her questioning as Detective Rich gets his pencil ready to write more things down “What do you mean life outside the house?”

“Well exactly as it sounds, we all live here. We have our life here, and dad has his life at work,” Mark replies quietly.

“What about schooling?”

“Our dad teaches us,” you respond. You can sense Mark getting nervous, which is making your insides prickle with anxiety.

“So you guys don’t go to any public places other than the library?”

You nod your head, how did they know we go to the library?

The detective holds her eye contact with you before sighing “Could you guys come with me to the station? We need to run some tests on you Mark.”

Marks eyes widen “Me? I don’t understand, did I do something wrong?”

Detective Rich shakes his head “Not at all kid, we’re just curious about something.”

“With all due respect, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. If we’re not back by the time he is, he’ll be very mad. So if you don’t mind, me and my sister are just going to stay here.”

Detective Rich says something in French, to which Detective Sallow nods her head in agreement.

“Where is he going?” you ask once he left the room.

She offers you a small smile “We want to run a DNA test on Mark, and we have a kit in the car. We just have some questions about your dad that only these tests can answer.”

“I’m not in trouble right? Because if dad finds out you guys came by while he wasn’t here, he won’t be very happy. And I would rather stay on his good side,” Mark says.

“No sweetie, you’re not in trouble. If we’re right about this, your father is the one in trouble.”

You and Mark look at each other in shock. Your father would never do anything warranting the police to show up at the house.

“I’m sorry ma’am, you must be mistaken. Our father would never break the law, he always taught us to respect other people. He would never hurt an innocent person,” you say, defending your father from the unspoken acquisitions.

Before Detective Sallow can respond, you all hear a knock at the door before Detective Rich enters the room again. As he walks back to the table, he opens the bag to pull out some rubber gloves.

“Okay Mark, can I take a DNA test? All I do is take this,” he says, pulling out an item resembling a q-tip “and swab your cheek. Then we’re done.”

Mark glances over to Detective Sallow, who nods her head encoungly. Mark looks back to Directive Rich and slowly nods his head. You quickly stand, offering your seat next to Mark for the Detective so he can easily complete the test.

“Can you uh” you stutter looking at Detective Sallow “can you not tell our dad you were here? Like Mark said, he will get really mad if he finds out you guys were here while he was out.”

Detective Sallow smiles at you, eyes conveying a conflicted emotion “Of course sweetie,” she pauses “what does he do when he’s mad?”

You pause, caught off guard by the question. You know that telling her he has hit you can only result in more trouble, and the last thing you want is to do is cause more trouble. “Nothing too bad, he just yells.”

She nods her head, looking over to her partner who had completed the test and was putting the swab into a plastic bag. She pushes her chair back “Well, we’ll leave you guys alone now. And again, don’t worry about us telling your dad about what happened.”

You nod your head as you lead them to the door, holding it open for them. With one last nod of their heads, the detectives head out to their car.

“What do you think that was about?” you question as you close the door.

Mark stares out the window at the receding car “I don’t know, but something about it feels off.”

You nod your head in agreement, you don’t know much about law enforcement, but you do know that they are mainly for catching bad guys. And out of everyone in your family, Mark was definitely the least harmful.

“Mark?”

“Hm?”

“Can we just pretend this didn’t happen? I don’t like how it feels.”

He stares at you for a few seconds before smiling softly “Yeah, definitely. Let’s go back to find a movie yeah? I think I’m more in the mood for To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Normally, your pride would stop you from accepting his pity offer. But, for once, your pride is overpowered by the fear slowly flooding your system.

~~

**When your dad gets home, he’s slamming your bedroom door open. You and Mark jolt awake, squinting at the light flooding in from the living room.**

**“Why the fuck were the police here?” he screams switching on the lights.**

**You blink your eyes to try and adjust to the bright lights, your insides squeezing in terror “What are you talking about?”**

**He smiles, laughing mockingly “Don’t play dumb with me y/n. The cops were here, they were in my house and I want to know why.”**

**“It wasn’t anything bad, I swear.”**

**“Stand up.”**

**Your heart drops “What?”**

**“I said stand up.”**

**Your eyes drop to the floor as you strip your blankets away. You slowly stand up, forcing yourself to make eye contact with him. You can feel your hands shake, but you know you’ll seem less weak if you can just keep your eye contact.**

**“Why were they here?”**

**“It wasn’t anything bad-” you’re cut off with a sharp sting to your cheek. The force of the hit makes you lose your balance and you stumble to the side.**

**“Tell me the fucking truth,” he screams.**

**“It is, it is. I promise you they were here for a check up. Someone must have called them, they said they were worried about a gas leak,” you say, praying to any god that that was something the police did.**

**“Did you call them?”**

**“No no, it must’ve been a neighbour. I know how you feel about them dad, we would never do that to you,” you try to smile. You can feel the tears stinging in your eyes, you can feel your breath getting shorter.**

**“You’re lying, why the fuck were they here?” he raises his hand to hit you again, you squeeze your eyes shut.**

**“She’s not!” Mark exclaims “she isn’t. They said some neighbour smelled sulfur around here and that they were going to make rounds to all the houses in the neighbourhood. But then they got a call saying that they were needed somewhere else and had to leave before they could go to any other houses. They even had to cut our questioning short.”**

**Your dad lowers his hand. He stares at Mark before looking back to you and responding in a calm voice “If it was that easy, why didn’t you just say so?”**

_“I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was important,” you answer, voice barely above a whisper._

_“Next time, don’t skip out on the details,” he says coldly before walking out, making sure to slam the door behind him._

_All the breath leaves your body and your topple over, trying to get oxygen into your body._

_Mark jumps out of bed and crouches next to you “Hey hey, it’s okay. It’ll be okay, just try and breathe yeah?”_

_You shake your head and fall into Mark, the sound of you hyperventilating being the only noise to leave your body._

_“Oh come on, now isn’t the time to be stubborn. I’ll do it with you, okay?”_

_The next few minutes are spent in Marks arms trying to get your breath back._

_After your breath is stable, Mark leans his chin on top of your head “Wanna go to bed? I’ll let you sleep on the awesome mattress with the awesome Mark.”_

_You attempt a laugh- which sounds more like a sob- and shakily stand up. Mark lays down closest to the wall, patting the space next to him. You lay down next to him, and he pulls the blankets over you both. You’re still crying as he pulls you close to his chest._

~~

When you wake up, Mark is staring at you “Well good morning to you too, creep.”

He smirks, rolling his eyes “I just woke up myself, calm down.”

You look into his eyes, his eyes are safe. So you quietly ask “How do I look?”

He smiles softly, raising one hand to lightly run over the bruise that is forming on your cheek “Beautiful.”

You smile at his words, words that are definitely a lie “We have to get up, don’t we?”

Mark nods his head as he sits up “But it’s grocery day, so he’s not here right now. So let’s get up and make some breakfast. I’ll try and make some eggs again.”

You clap your hands together in excitement. Mark always offers to make you eggs after a bad day or night, he knows it makes you happy to watch him crash and burn.

And so, your breakfast is a plate of perfect Mark Qinn eggs, which means they’re hideous. But hey, they’re home.

~~

“Alright guys, I’m heading out now. If the police come back, don’t let them.” Your dad instructs as he shrugs on his coat.

You nod your head, forcing a smile “Okay, I’m really sorry that happened.”

“It’ll be okay so long as you don’t do it again.”

And with that, it is just you and Mark in the house. You can feel anxiety starting to form, but you try your best to push it away. You just want this feeling to pass, which it always does. You just wish it would pass faster. 

“Hey Mark?”

He looks up from his essay, his stare being the only response.

“I know we’re supposed to be working, but this feeling won’t go away. Can we work while we watch TV? I can’t stand the silence.”

He nods his head, scooting his chair back and gathering all his materials to work in the bedroom. You know you’re supposed to be working, but your mind isn’t focusing. You walk into your dad’s room, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV.

“Y/n, what are you doing?” Mark asks once he sees that you’re creating a new account.

“I want to understand why he freaked so much at the police. So I’m making a new account and me and you are going to watch a crime show,” you answer, finishing the account and pressing save.

He pauses, stunned by your defiance “Is that such a good idea after last night?”

“That’s why I want to know, why was he so freaked out? And why doesn’t he like it to such an extent?”

“You remember when you tried to bring that book back, he doesn’t like us knowing about that kind of stuff.”

You sigh and look at Mark “I was really hoping you’d join me, I don’t want to be alone. But I want to know about this too, so you can either join me or leave. If we get caught, which we won’t, I’ll take the blame.”

He shifts on his feet nervously before nodding his head “Okay, why not?”

“What about this one?” you ask leaving the selector over a series called Criminal Minds. You guys have been looking for maybe three minutes, but you’re ready to kick Mark’s picky self out of the room.

He leans forward, squinting his eyes to read the text “Seems okay.”

You roll your eyes as you click play “Glad to know it passes the Mark Qinn inspection.”

“Shut up and watch.”

You giggle at his reply and lean against the headboard as the episode starts to play.

Just as Gideon is about to confront the man on the docs, you hear a knock at the door. You look over to Mark, who shares the concerned look on your face. You both are scared that it is the detectives, from yesterday. You both slowly make your way to the door, taking the same places as yesterday.

“Mark, y/n, hello again,” Detective Sallow smiles. Next to her is Detective Rich and behind them two other cops.

Mark’s eyes scan over the new people before looking back to her “What is this about? I thought it was over from yesterday, and did you or someone tell our dad? Because he found out and was not very happy.”

“I’m sorry he found out, but we didn’t tell him that we came,” she pauses before unfolding a piece of paper and handing it to Mark “but we need you to come down to the station with us. Your dad is there.”

Your eyes widen and you rush to stand next to Mark “Why? Is he okay?”

The Detective nods her head “Yeah he’s fine, we’ll explain everything once we get there. These are officers Alsh and Thies, they’ll be watching over the house while we’re gone. Okay?”

“Um, let us grab some stuff and we’ll be back,” Mark answers before softly shutting the door.

“What should we do y/n?”

You can’t help the shocked expression that takes over your face “What do you mean what should we do, of course we have to go. He needs us, or they wouldn’t be here.”

“But won’t he be more mad once he sees us there? We’ve never been to a station before, and I’m fairly certain he won’t want us there.”

You sigh and rest your hand on the knob “Mark I’m not going to argue with you, so I’ll give you the same choices as before. Stay or come, but I’m going with or without you.”

He sighs, shaking his head. But when you open the door, he’s right behind you. You glance at him and smile before turning to the Detective “Okay, we’re ready to go.”

The twenty minute drive to the station is spent in silence on yours and Mark’s part. Mark is too busy bouncing his leg and staring out the window. You haven’t been in a car in a long time, and you have never been this far away from home before. You didn’t know your city had this many tall buildings.

When the car is parked, Detective Sallow turns around in her seat “When we go in, I want you guys to be prepared for what you’re going to hear. I have to tell you guys something, but let’s go inside to somewhere more comfortable okay?”

You both nod your head, your insides starting to squeeze. _Why is no one giving us answers as to why we are here?_

You and Mark get out of the car and follow the detectives into the building, each step making your mind dive deeper into theories about why you’re here. Your dad didn’t do anything, like you and Mark he was boring. He doesn’t go anywhere other than work, and if he hasn’t lost his job then he must be a good employee. _So why are we-_

Your thoughts are cut off as you run into Mark’s back. You mumble a sorry, shaking your head to focus your mind.

Detective Sallow was stopped in front of an office, Detective Rich is not with your group anymore. She opens the door, montiong for you both to walk in. The room is small, it only has a couch, table, and a chair opposite the couch.

“Please sit, I’ll be right back” Detective Sallow motions to the couch before closing the door behind her.

You and Mark move to the couch, Mark goes back to silently bouncing his leg. To say you are on edge is an understatement. Why isn’t she taking you to your dad? He needs you both, so why can’t you see him? 

You whip your head towards the door once you hear it opening. Detective Sallow walks through the door, holding a thin blue file.

“Can we just get our dad and go? I’m not feeling very well,” you ask as she sits down in the chair opposite to the couch.

She smiles softly “Not yet, but I just have some questions.”

She opens the file and pulls out a photo “Mark do you know this woman? “

Mark glances at the photo, and shakes his head no.

“What about this man?”

Mark shakes his head again.

“This is Eu-In Lee,” she says pointing to the woman “and this is Joon-Young Lee.” She points to the man before pausing.

You and Mark stare at her before she sighs “What I need to tell you, you both have to promise me that you’ll be open to this idea okay? I know that this is hard but you have to trust me.”

You both nod your head, and you start tapping your middle finger on your thumb.

“Mark, these people are your parents.”

Your ears ring, and for a second no one says anything.

“That’s not true, I’m a Qinn,” Mark says breaking the silence.

“I know this is hard, but that’s not true. Your name is Min-hyung Lee, and you were kidnapped by Matthew Qinn when you were three. Remember the DNA tests we took? We compared them to a samples of Mr and Mrs. Lee, and they were a match.”

You shake your head “Stop this, stop this right now. I don’t know why you are trying to take my brother from me, but stop. He is Mark Qinn I am y/n Qinn, and we are siblings.”

Her dark brown eyes convey sympathy for you and Mark, you hate it.

“The Lees lost their son when he was three years old, which would make their son sixteen now. Mark, how old are you?”

“Sixteen,” he whispers, voice on the verge of cracking. You subconsciously move closer to Mark, you wanted him to know he wasn’t alone in this situation.

“I know this is hard, but you have to believe me. We have him in custody-”

“What about me?” you ask cutting her off. Your ears are still ringing and your heart is pounding in your chest. “Where do I fit into your accusations of kidnapping?”

“I’m sorry sweetie, but we don’t know. If you like, we can run a DNA test to Mr. Qinn to see if you are related to Mr. Qinn. But that doesn’t change what is going to happen, we’re going to charge him with false imprisonment. ”

“And what happens to us? We don’t have anywhere to go while you falsely accuse our father,” you ask. Your father is going to beat this, and then you can all go home and it’ll all be okay again.

“Well Min-hyung-”

“Mark, please my name is Mark.”

She nods her head once before continuing “Well Mark is going to go back to his family, and y/n it is most likely that you’ll be put into foster care until we can find a more permanent solution.”

“Excuse me? No no you- you can’t do that. You can’t separate us” Mark stutters.

You squeeze your eyes shut, this is too much. Why are they trying to do this to our family?

“I’m sorry, I don’t think there is anything I can do. But it will be okay, we have really good homes here. You both can visit each other any time, I can also instruct your social worker to place you near him so when you’re both ready to go to school you can go together.”

You feel your stomach churn and you take a deep breath to try and calm your nerves “You can’t come in here, rip our father from us, and then rip us apart.”

“I won’t do it, I won’t leave her. You can’t make me,” Mark says, pushing himself further into your side.

She nods her head in understanding “Would you be willing to meet the Lees?” 

You close your eyes and lean your head over the edge of the couch, laughing humorlessly “We don’t have a choice do we?”

Detective Sallow sighs “I’ll be right back with them,” she pauses, hand on the door handle “they- they’re really nice people. You’re going to be happy there.”

And with that she leaves you two to process the fact that Mark’s new family is about to walk through that door.

“Okay,” Mark stands up from the couch and spins to face you “get up. We have to go.”

You look up at Mark “And go where? Our dad is in jail, and there is an army of police officers who are waiting to stop us.”

Mark presses the balls of his hands into his eyes, sighing deeply “God I don’t know y/n. We just have to go, we have to go or we’ll be seperated. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like losing my whole family in one day.”

You know he’s being irrational, that’s he’s acting out of fear. And some part of you wants to join him in his escape plan, join him in the delusion that you both could survive together. But you know better, so you stand up and grab his hands.

“Mark,” you look into his eyes, and he looks back at you with such desperation that it hurts. “I don’t want you to leave me, I know you know that. But think about it, we won’t make it out of this room without someone stopping us. And you know-”

You’re interrupted by Detective Sallow poking her head in before opening the door wider to reveal two people behind her. You try to let go of Mark, but he just grips your hand tighter as he drops his hands to his side.

As they file into the room, you hear the women suck in a breath and whisper something in another language to her husband. He looks at Mark before breaking into a smile and responding back in the forgin language.

“I’ll be right outside if you need anything, please take as long as you need to sort things out,” and with that, Detective Sallow shuts the door behind her.

“Hi,” the woman blurts out as soon as the door is closed “I’m Eu-In, and this is my husband Joon-Young.”

You and Mark nod your head, Mark shifts uncomfortably. There’s an awkward silence before you take a slight step forward.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lee I am so sorry that you lost your son, we really are. But please, Mark is my only family and you can’t take him from me. Please you can’t.”

“Min-Hyung, his name is Min-Hyung,” she replies, emotion lacing her voice. It’s an emotion that’s hard to place, but it definitely isn’t friendly.

“Mark, my name is Mark. And this is my sister, so please you can’t take her away from me. I’ll go with you, I’ll go willingly if you agree to take her with us.”

“Min-Hyung,” at the sound of the name, Mark flinchs beside you “we can’t take her in.”

“What, no. You can, you just don’t want to.”

“There is a lady in our building, I think she is a foster parent. Maybe you can go live there sweetie,” Eu-In says, a tight smile on her lips.

“Why can’t you just take her like you’re going to take me?” Mark asks, his grip tightening around your hand.

“Because she isn’t ours, and from what the police know she’s the kid of the monster who took you from us,” Joon-Young said. The emotion that laces his voice is easy to place, it’s disdain.

“You can’t talk to my sister like that,” Mark says, stepping forward slightly as if to protect you from the words.

The woman widens her eyes, the man’s mouth falling slightly open at Marks outburst. 

“Min,” the woman begins softly, eyes still slightly widened. “Matthew Qinn isn’t your father, and this girl here is not your sister.”

You see her glance at you, focusing on the bruise on your face, before addressing you “Y/n, mine and my husband’s heart hurts for what you must have endured. But you and my son share no blood bond. He is Min-Hyung Lee and you are Y/n Qinn, and I am so sorry but I couldn’t take you in even if I was legally allowed to. You’re too much of a reminder.”

You take a half step back, the words are too much. First, they arrest your dad, then they try and tell you that Mark isn’t your brother, and now the lady they are saying is his mother is telling you that she doesn’t want anything to do with you. Your heart starts to beat faster, the brave face you tried to put up coming down.

“Stop, please stop this. He is all I have, and I am begging you to let me stay with him. I can’t lose him, I won’t let you take him. You can’t do that to me, not after everything we’ve been through together. Please,” you plead. You want to move forward, to get closer to her so she can see how serious you are, but you can’t.

“Mrs. Lee I know that you think I’m your son. And while I don’t know what to make about that theory yet, one thing I do know is that y/n is my family. So I’ll have to tell you now, if you want any kind of a relationship with me you are going to stop being mean to her. Even if dad, er Mr. Qinn,” he pauses as a look of hurt flashes over the Lee’s face.“ Even if he did kidnap me, she didn’t want any of it.”

After his statement, Mark takes his hand out of yours and wraps his arm around your shoulders. You can tell that what he said shook them up a bit, especially him referring to dad as dad. You almost felt bad at the hurt look that flashed through their eyes, but Mark is right. Even if your dad is this bad guy, why are you being punished for it?

Eu-In sighs and turns to her husband before saying something in the same foregin language. He looks shocked but she rushes out her next few words. He nods his head before responding in far less words than she had used. She glances over at Mark before looking back to her husband, responding a final time.

“Uh, what if we talk to the Detective and try our best to get y/n to spend the night with us before she is placed with a home? Would that make you willing to come home?”

Mark nods his head egeraly “Thank you so much Mrs. Lee.”

She offers you both a small smile before her and her husband slip out the door, closing it softly behind them.

“Mark?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m really scared.”

He pauses, eyes looking at the door “Me too y/n. Me too.” 

**—**

Thank you for reading, I hope it was decent! I’ll try and make the chapters shorter than this so it’s easier to read. I spent all day trying to figure out how masterlists work for my entire stories that I have going, so I think it’s safe to say I am one of the least tech savvy teens out there. Anyways, have a good day/night!!!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry that this took so long! Also I apologize in advance for how boring the next three chapters might be, but I promise that I have an idea for where this is going! Italics are English, thoughts, or to emphasize a word! Also I promise that this story will get better!!

The e-mail had been pretty straight forward: schedule a flight between these specific hours, get on the plane, find the right terminal, check-in at the meeting place, and then wait to be whisked away by a shuttle. It was meant to make this exhausting process easier, but of course, you being you only turned it into a challenge. **  
**

The first half was easy, seeing as you only had to make sure not to miss the flight. It was after that, however, that things got difficult. This had been your first time traveling away from the city, and being a foster kid you had never been on a plane before. So navigating an airport, let alone one mostly in Korean, was harder than expected.

After having a near breakdown (the result of walking around the wrong terminal), a wave of relief washes over you as you finally find the right terminal. Smiling tiredly, you pull your suitcase towards the blue banner displaying ‘Ajou University’ in yellow letters.

A lady holding a clipboard and wearing a lanyard matching the banner meets you as you walk towards the sign, “Hi, are you here for Ajou University?”

“Yes, do I need to sign in?”

She smiles at you, clicking her pen “Nope, just tell me your name and I can check you in!”

“I’m y/n Qinn, _Q-i-n-n.”_

She flips a few pages, finger running down the left side of the page. Once she finds your name, she marks something down before smiling back up at you “ _Okay, you’re all checked in. You just missed the shuttle, but the last one will go out once the rest of the planes land.”_

 _“Okay, thank you,”_ you say, bowing slightly before walking to the furthest corner.

You sit in the seat closest to the wall, setting your backpack on top of your suitcase. _You better appreciate all that I’m going through for you._

Reaching forward, you unzip your bag to make sure your phone is still in your bag. You had checked it was there at the store, but as it was a new phone and you spent the first 30 minutes after border control buying a sim card and getting it set up, better safe than sorry.

_“Can I sit?”_

You look up to see a boy with dyed light brown hair pointing to the seat next to you. You nod your head, putting your phone back into the bag and moving your suitcase to rest against the wall _“Of course.”_

He takes his phone out of his back pocket before sitting down, placing his phone in the drink pocket in his backpack. “ _Do you speak Korean?”_

“I speak a little, I don’t think I’m very good though,” you answer quietly.

He smiles at you “It’s okay, you’re still someone to talk to. Where are you from?”

“I’m from Canada, you’re from here right?”

He smiles, leaning back into his seat “More south, I’m from Busan.”

“Ah,” you say nodding your head.

He shakes his head, sticking his hand out to you, “Where are my manners? I’m Na Jaemin.”

You smile politely, shaking his hand despite not knowing what ‘manners’ meant _“Y/n Qinn.“_

Jaemin proceeds to ask you more questions, and thankfully he doesn’t seem too bothered by the basic questions you ask inturn. By the time the check-in lady announces that the shuttle is here, you’ve learned what Jaemin hopes to study, where the best food is (which he’s promised to take you there), and his favourite character (a cute lion named Ryan).

“Hey y/n?” Jaemin asks, slinging his backpack onto his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry if I’m coming off too strong, I’m just really nervous to be on my own. First time ever,” he admits, messing with the strap on his backpack.

You smile slightly, tilting your head to tell him to walk with you ”It’s okay, I enjoyed talking with you. I’m sorry if it comes off like I don’t, I’m not very confident in my Korean. But I’d like to think I made my first friend at the Gimpo International Airport.”

He turns his head to you, smiling brightly again “Aw, who knew you could be so sweet. I’m glad you’re my first friend too.”

You smile shyly up at him “Does this mean you’ll save me the trouble of finding a seat on the bus?”

“I may not know you that well, but I do know you’re lucky to have me to save you from the horrors of this world.”

You snort “And I may not know you that well yet, but I can already sense you’re a drama person.”

“Dramatic person.”

“Yes, dramatic person.”

~~

 _“When we get off the bus, could students in the buddy program please meet me at the front of the bus. Students not in the buddy program, when we get off you’ll meet my colleague at the back of the bus. We would like you all to grab your things first and then meet us,_ ” the attendant says, before repeating the message in Korean.

“By any chance, are you in the _buddy program_?” you ask, turning to Jaemin once the Korean message is finished.

He pouts “No. But we can meet up later if you want, if you’re not too tired. I don’t know if I can get you that good food I talked about, but I’m sure they have something equally good here.”

“Oh, okay,” you hum, bending down to pull your bag from under the seat in front of you, opening the front pocket. “Here,” you say, handing him your phone.

“I know I’m a smart guy and all, I am smart enough to realize this is to get my number, but I’m not smart enough to read the English. How do I add my number?” he asks shyly, handing the phone out to you.

“I don’t know what is so hard about the plus in the top right corner, but okay,” you tease, tapping the plus.

“Don’t take the tone up with me young lady,” Jaemin grumbles, adding his number and spending longer than necessary on the name. “Here,” he says proudly, handing the phone back “You should look at the name.”

You groan, already knowing it was going to be something extra. You can’t stop the smile once you see ‘ _Hansom_ 💘🐻✈️🚍🤍’

The bus slows to a stop, and you both stand up “Want to explain?”

“Well,” he says stepping into the aisle “The bear is Ryan, I am extremely sad they don’t have a yellow bear, the airplane because that’s where we met, the bus because of now, and the white heart because that’s my favourite color.”

“And the other heart?”

“Obviously because I stole your heart with my outstanding handsome looks.”

You snort, following behind him as the line starts moving “You spelled _handsome_ wrong, idiot.”

He pauses before he regains his smirk “No, I spelled it cutely. There’s a difference.”

“Yeah, sure.”

You stop once you see the crowd forming around where the bags are being unloaded. “Come on,” you say, grabbing Jaemin’s arm and dragging him to the back of the crowd.

“Really, y/n?”

You shrug your shoulders, placing a hand on his shoulder to balance as you stand on the tips of your toes to try and look over everyone “It’s fine, this way we can avoid the crowds and spend more time together.”

“Okay shorty, how about you tell me what your bag looks like and I’ll brave the crowd for you.”

You smile, letting go of his shoulder and dropping back onto your feet “ _Okey_ , mine’s the pink one with the hard shell.”

“Shell?” he asks, laughing at your choice of words.

You wack his shoulder “Come on, I don’t know what it’s called. What is it called?”

“It’s called,” he pauses, before darting into the crowd. He comes back with a grey suitcase, a Ryan key chain hanging in place of a luggage tag.

“It’s called?”

He sighs in defeat, resuming his spot next to you “I don’t know y/n, shell is the best word for it I guess.”

“That’s what I thought,” you say, nodding triumphantly. “Hey, wait a minute. Where’s my bag? It should be out by now, I put mine in right before yours.”

“Wow, that eager to get away from me? I see how it is.”

You roll your eyes “You’re fine. You’re the one who offered to get my bag for me, so you should go into that crowd and find it.”

“Bossy much?”

You shrug your shoulders “It must sound that way because of my lack of Korean vocab.”

“Yeah, sure. Watch my bag,” he says, shoving his bag towards you and walking into the crowd again.

“Aw, thanks Jaeminie,” you gush, feigning a sweet smile once he emerges from the crowd with your bag.

He snorts “That is the fakest thing I have heard all day. Here,” he says, handing you the suitcase. “Take your stupid suitcase.”

You gasp, “No need to be harsh Jaemin, I was just complimenting you.”

“In the fakest way possible,” he pauses, taking his suitcase from you. “I guess we have to separate now.”

“You’ll be fine Jaemin, you came up to me pretty easily. You’ll make friends,” you offer, not knowing how to respond to the statement.

“I’m not worried about that, I’ll make friends with whoever is unlucky enough to be in my dorm. I’m worried about you and your lack of will to talk to people.”

“I don’t know if you’re being serious or not, but it’s okay. I already made one friend, I’m good waiting until someone else comes up to me.”

He shakes his head, grabbing his suitcase “Well then I guess I’ll see you for dinner.”

You nod your head, offering a small wave before you start your walk to the front of the bus. You see the lady from the check-in along with a group of students all waiting around the bus.

“Is this the buddy program group?” you ask the attendant.

She smiles at you “ _Yep, and can I have the folder you prepared?”_

 _“Oh yeah, hold on,_ ” you say, swinging your backpack off your shoulder and setting it on your bag.

_“I hear that this is one of the harder parts, I bet you’re happy to finally be rid of it.”_

You smile, handing her the file _“I wouldn’t say hard, just time-consuming. Figuring out family relations was the hardest part.”_

 _“Well we’re happy to have you here Ms-”_ she flips open the file _“Qinn. We’re just waiting on a few more students and then we’ll get going.”_

You nod your head, putting your backpack back on and moving to the side. Taking this moment to just breathe, you close your eyes and take a deep breath. You’re actually here, in another foregin country, looking for someone who you haven’t heard from since the end of your sophmore year. _This doesn’t count as impulsive if I’ve been planning this since Mark’s family said they were moving here right?_

 _“Okay everyone”_ the attendant shouts, standing on the curb to get everyone’s attention. _“I just want to tell you a few things before we go meet your buddies, so listen up.”_

 _“This is the bus stop, so if you ever take a bus off campus this is where you will be dropped off or picked up._ ” she points behind her to a building across the street. “ _That is the library, that’s where we’ll meet your buddies. Your buddies will have a folder for you, and in that folder, you will get your student ID card that you need to get into the dorms, your international student ID card, the code to get into your room, campus map, and instructions on what is on each floor of the dorms.”_

She pauses, smiling to the crowd “ _Now that we’re done with the introduction, let’s go!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it! I forgot to mention, but all my @'s are Tumblr @'s. Thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me with this. I would love to know what you guys think of it!


	3. Chapter 3

She leads the crowd across the street, answering a few questions from the kids at the front of the crowd.

 _“Your buddies will be inside,”_ She explains, stopping in front of the library and turning around to face the group. _“They’ll be holding a sign with your name on it, have fun!”_

She pulls the door open, motioning for the first people to walk in. Thanking her as you pass through the door, you scan the room. All the buddies are spaced out with one person per bookshelf aisle, each holding their own decorated sign.

As you walk down the main walkway, you glance at all the signs. You smile at a few of the cutely decorated ones, laughing quietly at one that looks like they spelled their buddy’s name wrong and just crossed out the wrong letter.

You see your buddy standing at the fifth asile, holding a sign with y/n in red letters and Qinn in beautiful black calligraphy letters. “Hi,” you greet once you’re standing in front of the boy “I’m y/n.”

Smiling, he holds out his hand “Hi, I’m Donghyuck.”

“That’s a really pretty sign Donghyuck,” you compliment, shaking his hand.

He chuckles, turning to grab a folder that was taped to the bookshelf behind him “Thanks, but I can’t take any of the credit. It was my friend RenJun’s design, I have zero artistic sense.”

“Oh,” you say, nodding your head “Well I guess tell him I said it was pretty.”

“Will do. And before we do anything else, here is your folder,” he says handing you the folder he pulled off the wall. “Shall we start the tour?”

“Oh, okay,” you agree, laughing at the fast-paced introduction.

“Sorry for ending this so quickly, I’m excited for the next part,” he explains as you two walk to the front doors.

You smile softly, “So is that why we’re the first ones leaving?”

He pulls the door open for you, shrugging “What can I say? I’m just ahead of everyone else.”

You laugh, stopping so he can show you where to go next “Fair enough, fair enough.”

“And there it is,” he turns to the left and points to a golf cart.

“This is what you were excited for?” you ask, stopping next to the passenger side.

He nods his head enthusiastically, pointing to your bag “May I?”

“Oh, sure.” you press in the handle of the suitcase so he can put it in the back.

You climb into the passenger seat, putting your backpack at your feet. He gets into the driver’s seat, turning the keys that are already in the ignition.

“They let us use these for the first day of the _buddy_ program, my friend told me about it when he was a _buddy_. It’s the reason I signed up in the first place,” he explains as he backs out of the ‘parking space’ and onto the main walkway.

“Well that’s definitely a good reason to sign up for something,” you comment, looking to your right as you drive down the path.

He hums in response “Now it’s time to get through the boring stuff, so forgive me.” he dramatically clears his throat “If you open your folder and find the campus map, we’re going to number 17. Which, as you can see, is international housing. We started at number 27, which I’m sure you noticed is a library.”

You slide the map out of the folder, finding each of the buildings he mentioned. The dorms are on the opposite side of the campus, so each building you passed he told you it’s use.

“We’re only going to pass some of the teaching halls on the way to the dorm, so I’ll take us there to drop off your bag and then take you to see the rest of the halls, okay?”

“ _Okey_.”

“So, what brings you to Korea?”

“My best friend lives here, we lost contact when we were younger. I came to find him.”

There was something about having to call Mark your friend that makes you feel like you’ve lost, no matter how many times you’ve had to say it. You have been told countless times by your therapist, his parents, even kids at school that he is not your brother. And so one day, just before he was taken to Korea, you both agreed to just call each other friends.

“Well, if you need someone to take you can just call your good pal: Lee Donghyuck.”

“Thanks, if I don’t make Jaemin take me, I’ll make you.”

“Oh how kind of you.”

“I know, I’m the best.”

“And we’re here!” he exclaims, parking the cart next to one just like it. He turns off the engine and hops out of the driver’s seat.

“You’re going to need your student ID card to get into the building,” he says, pulling your suitcase out of the back. He starts walking towards the building, sending you a glare as you try and take your suitcase from him. “Be sure not to lose it, it’s a lot of work to get another one.”

“Okay, so I just put it like this?” you ask, pulling out your ID card and placing it on the scanner.

“Other way,” he says as it beeps at you, indicating that you had placed it facing the wrong way.

“Okay,”he claps his hands together once you successfully use your ID to open the doors.

He brings you two to a halt, pointing his finger to the left “down there you have the gym and the laundry room. The women’s half of the laundry room is on the right, so when you walk in you’ll go to the very right. Also, pro-tip, they only use bills.”

“And down here,” he says, still pulling your suitcase behind you as he starts walking to the right “is the mailroom. If you get any mail, it’ll go here. The information about that is in your folder.”

“And if I don’t get mail?” you ask jokingly.

“Then you don’t have to come down here now do ya? Onward!” he exclaims dramatically, turning and walking out of the room.

You roll your eyes, “You know, I’d like to put you in a room with my friend I was talking about. You’re both very different.”

“Well, let me know when you find him, I’ll be sure to trap us in a room together. This is the lobby, this is where I’ll be when you get back,” he says, gesturing to a few couches. “But first, I’ll show you the elevators.”

“Elevators? I think I know how they work, Donghyuck.”

He rolls his eyes “Shut up, I’m just doing what they told me. I spent all day learning about this building, which I will never live in, mind you, so you better accept my knowledge.”

You hold your hands up in mock surrender “Okay, okay, tell me about these elevators.”

“Well,” he says, stopping in front of the middle elevator “This is the women’s elevator, the only one you will have to worry about. The one to our right is the males, and the one on the left is the teachers.”

Your eyes widen and you turn to look at him “You mean teachers live here too? How does that work?”

“I have no idea, but don’t worry about it. Now, moving on from teachers,” he points to the sign, which indeed said ‘females only.’ “As you can see, the only floors you are allowed on are 5-8. Which floor do you live on?”

“Um,” you hum, quickly opening the folder and leafing through the pages until you find the one that has ‘housing’ in bold letters at the top. “I live on floor 8.”

He nods his head and moves forward to press the up button “Then you have everything on that sheet there, go up to your room and put your things away. Then you can meet me back down here and we’ll finish our tour, sound good?”

You nod your head, and he finally rolls you your suitcase back as the doors ding open.

“I’ll be in the lobby, remember your ID card okay?”

You nod your head pressing the 8 button. You look down at the sheet, _room 301 use code 53567 or your student ID card to open the door._ You skimmed over some of the rules while you waited to reach your floor, your favourite being that if you bought any food you are required to write your name and the expiration date on it.

When you get to your dorm room, you knock twice in case your roommate is inside before using your card to open the door.

“Okay then,” you mumble, as you see that you are the first one here.

You walk to the right side of the room and put your suitcase at the foot of the bed. You sit on the bed, dropping your backpack next to you. You look around the room, trying to feel the slightest bit displaced in the new, very different then you were used to room. Homesickness was something every study abroad guide warned you about, yet you find yourself struggling to feel anything close to that.

Shaking your head, you grab your ID card and the campus map before exiting the room. As you walk to the elevators, you send Jaemin a text telling him you made it to the dorms and have a nice buddy.

**Well I’m glad things worked out on your end my roommate isn’t here 😢 he just left his stuff here and took off**

**You’re fine, you big baby, maybe he’s a buddy. Ever think of that?**

**No….**

**That’s what I thought. I have to go, we’re finishing the tour now. Have fun my dude**

**Fine you leave me too. Nobody here loves me (｡ ́︿ ̀｡)**

_“Aww, how sad”_ you chuckle, pouting back at the emoji.

When you walk back into the lobby, you see Donghyuck talking to another boy. You walk up to the pair, hoping Donghyuck will notice you so you don’t have to stand there awkwardly until they notice you.

Thankfully, Donghyuck hears you coming before you have to say anything “You have your ID?”

You pull it out of your back pocket “Yep! Right here.”

He stands up “Great,” he turns to look at his friend “Y/n this is Jeno, we’re in the same dance team. Jeno this is y/n, my _buddy_.”

Jeno stands up to greet you, “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, are you a _buddy_ too?”

He nods his head “Yeah, he’s a senior exchange student from Argentina. It’s a little hard because all the English I know is from school and what little our friend has taught us, but so far not too many issues.”

“Ah, yeah that can be hard. Well I believe in you, fighting” you say, doing the ‘fighting’ motion.

He smiles, holding up his arm to copy you “Fighting!”

“Okay, well I’ll see you later tonight Jeno.

“Ready to see the rest of the halls?” he asks, holding the door open for you.

“Yeah, do you know when we get schedules?” you ask. You can feel your phone buzzing in your back pocket, and you suppress a sigh. _I should have just texted._

“Well all the students who are buddies or have to come here by plane are here a week ahead of everyone else. So paper ones won’t be available until everyone else gets here, but you can look at your portal for an online one.”

“Oh, okay thanks. And then I’m sorry, but my foster mom is calling. It’ll be fast,” you explain, stopping and holding up your phone to show the Skype notification.

“It’s okay, I’ll just wait in the cart” he says, gesturing to the cart.

“Thanks,” you say as you turn your back to him and press the answer button.

_“Hey Ivy.”_

_“Y/n! I’m glad you got the phone set up, and this Skype thing works pretty well.”_

_“Um yeah, took forever to set up though.”_ you force a light laugh “ _Thanks again for helping me get here and buying me the phone. It means a lot.”_

_“Of course, I want you to be able to do anything you want.”_

_“Well thank you again, but I have to go. We’re touring the campus right now, so I have to go.”_

_“Oh, okay. Well I’ll talk to you later, be sure to tell me how you like the campus. I’m going to bed now, but you have a good rest of your day.”_

You turn around and start walking to the cart _“Okay, good night Ivy.”_

 _“Bye y/n,”_ she says softly before the line goes dead.

You sigh and run a hand through your hair, feeling guilty that you don’t act nicer to the woman who literally flew you to the other side of the world.

“Okay,” you say, pulling yourself into the passenger seat “ready to go.”

“That was short, you can call her back if you want. I won’t be able to understand a majority of it anyways,” he offers, pulling out into the road.

“Oh no, it’s okay. She just wanted to make sure I got here safe before she went to sleep.”

“Oh that’s nice of her. But of course, any parent would call, I know my mom had me text her as soon as I got here. You know moms, they just worry a lot” he rambles, trailing off at the end.

You smile at his attempts to be considerate towards you. Everyone always worries about what’s ‘appropriate’ to say to you in these cases, it’s always fun to see people unnecessarily beat around the bush with you.

“Yeah, she’s the most, mhm how should I put this? She’s the most willing to help me. My other foster parents were nice, but Ivy and her husband were the ones to buy my plane ticket and this phone.” _She’s also the one who feels the need to say things like ’you’re nothing like your father’ and ‘you can turn your life around if you try hard enough.’_

“Wow, that’s nice of her. I’m glad you’re here,” he answers awkwardly.

You laugh “I’m glad I’m here too, now which building is this?”

He turns to look at where you’re pointing “Oh, that’s the dining hall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I would love to know what you thought! Thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me!


	4. Chapter 4

“Apparently the _buddy_ program gives us coupons to all these places. So tomorrow, he’s taking me on a tour of the city. He even agreed to take me to visit someone” you tell Jaemin as you stack your empty dinner plates on your tray.

It was only 4:30 in the afternoon, but Jaemin agreed to get an early dinner with you. It was his idea in the first place, his reason being that ‘it is way past your bedtime back home.’

He pouts “Why do you get all the good stuff? I’m not from around here, why doesn’t some cute boy take me around the city?”

“I never said he was cute.”

“Is he?”

You avert your eyes and focus on straightening out the dishes on your tray “I don’t know, I guess so. He wasn’t bad looking.”

Jaemin nods his head “So he is cute, good to know, good to know.” 

“And what does it matter that he’s good looking?”

“Nothing.” he stuffs his last bit of meat into his mouth. “I just want to know where your cute friend is taking you. Do you have family nearby?”

You roll your eyes. “Not exactly family, just someone who I grew up with. We lost contact a little after he moved here, so I wanted to stop by his house. He’s why I chose this school.”

Jaemin’s eyebrows furrow slightly and he starts stacking his dishes “It isn’t my place to tell you what to do, but was that the best idea? I am all on board for you to find him, but you’re risking your future for him. What if you didn’t like it here, do you even like it so far from home?”

You smile at him. “Thank you for worrying. But I’m a foster kid, I don’t have any family back home. Mark, the boy I’m looking for, is as close to family as I have. He is my everything, and I have worked too hard to get here to turn back now. I miss him too much to turn back.”

He nods his head, picking up both his and your tray “Well, how about this. I’ll go return these and one the way back to the dorms, you tell me about him. Sound good?”

You smile up at him. “That sounds great, thank you.”

“No problem, I’ll be right back.”

You lean back in your chair as you watch him walk to the designated tray return. This will be the first person you talk about Mark to who isn’t your therapist, you haven’t even thought about your shared memories in detail in a long time.

“I want to change the story I get for taking your tray,” Jaemin starts as you walk to the dorms. “And before you yell at me, you can still talk about him as much as you want. But I want to get to know you through this story too, so be sure to explain why it’s fun or important to you.”

“Okay, then I get to hear your story sometime. I can get to know you, you get to know me.”

He nods his head, stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. “Deal.”

“Mhm, I guess I should start by saying that I’m a foster kid. That’s where I met Mark, well, kind of anyway.”

“I am just going to interrupt once, so don’t yell at me. But how do you know the word ‘foster’ and not the word ‘dramatic’?”

“Jaemin, why must you make fun of me when I’m telling you about my life?” you whine, stomping your feet slightly.

“I’m not making fun, it’s an honest question,” he laughs.

“I know it because the word foster was one of the first words I was taught, and it was something I used whenever I talked to my teacher about one of my foster parents for speaking practice. But dramatic was something I was taught once and didn’t bother to remember. Happy?”

He nods his head, grinning. “Very. You can continue.”

You roll your eyes playfully. “Thanks. Anyways, I’ve been in foster care since I was 15. But I met Mark before then, we spent a lot of time together. He and I were homeschooled, so we were each other’s only friends. We only got to go to public school together for one year, but in that year he was my only friend then too. I think it was the same for him too.”

“Anyways, the fun stuff is before I was in foster care. Like one time, Mark tried to make us breakfast. I had been complaining how I was sick of feeding him, especially with how picky he is,” you scrunch your nose and do your best impression of his voice “‘it’s not salty enough’ ‘it’s too sweet’ ‘why does it look like that?’”

Jaemin laughs at your impressions, and you let out an exasperated sigh “I’m not kidding, he was near impossible to feed. But one day, he just decided he was gonna cook for himself. ‘I’ll prove you wrong’ he said. And prove me wrong he did, he was way worse than expected.”

You laugh at the memory “First, he wasted five eggs trying to make a good fried egg before deciding to just make,” you press your lips together and turn to Jaemin “I don’t know what they’re called in Korean, but do you know _scrambled eggs?”_

 _“Scrambled eggs_?” he repeats.

“Yeah, you know, you mix them,” you explain, moving your hands to try and mimic a mixing motion.

“Ah, scrambled egg?”

“I’ll take your word for it. But anyways, that’s what he made instead of his fried egg. But of course, he forgot to put enough oil into the pan. So they burnt. But it was okay, because some of it was okay looking. Until he added the salt. This man put so much salt on his eggs, it took everything for me not to stop him.”

Jaemin snorts. “I’m not the best cook, but I at least know that you need to be careful with your salt.”

“Exactly! And I remember he looked at me like he knew what he was doing, like he had proved me wrong. I cannot explain to you the joy I felt watching him spit it out and look at the plate with such disappointment.” you smile as the image of Mark’s smug smile is wiped from his face due to his salty eggs flashes through your mind. “He was not happy that I had beat him, well until I reminded him he is better than me in any other way.”

“It became my comfort food,” you say, fondly smiling at all the times Mark had made you eggs.

“Salty eggs?” Jaemin asks, scrunching his nose in disgust.

“No, not exactly,” you laugh. “The comfort came from watching Mark try and make eggs. We made a rule that we would eat the first batch he made no matter what. So the comfort comes from all the memories of trying to eat eggs that were burnt or salty or had too much pepper. It felt safe and like I had someone who cared about me.”

Jaemin turns his head to look at you, smiling fondly at the way you’re opening up to him. Sure, you aren’t telling him dark secrets, but you’re telling him something that’s important to you. He doesn’t have any friends back home to use as a reference for how fast it should take for these kinds of memories to be shared, he just hopes you don’t think he’s weird for wanting to know so much about you.

“And as a result, do you just make horrible eggs when you’re sad?”

You smile, wacking his shoulder. “No, not anymore anyway. When his family moved here, I tried making them for myself once and it wasn’t the same. Maybe once I find him again, he can make me some again. Maybe he’s gotten better,” you mumble, trailing off at the end.

“When did he move?”

“The summer before my 10th year, his 11th. But his parents were born in Korea but moved to Canada when they were adults, and I guess they wanted to move back to Korea. It sounds really stupid to say, but I think they moved here to get Mark away from me,” you laugh to try and seem like it didn’t bother you. “His family hated me, probably still do, and figured this was the last place I’d follow them to.”

“I’m sure they didn’t hate you, you seem like you would be a good kid.”

“I don’t think it was me they hated, more like what I reminded them of. It’s a long story that I’ve never told anyone, and the only people who know are my foster parents, his parents, and Mark and me.”

“And you-“

"And before you try and offer me some kind of something, just know that I don’t need you to say anything. I already know that I don’t need to tell anyone anything that I’m not ready to tell. You just said you wanted to get to know me and this is a part of me.”

Jaemin laughs. “Get that a lot then?”

“You have no idea, people always think I think that I need to tell them something. But they want to look like a caring person so they say things like ‘you don’t need to tell me if you don’t want’ or 'tell me as little or as much as you want.’ I don’t think they actually think I’ll take them up on the offer. It gets annoying after the fifth random person asks you to tell them something,” you complain.

“Fair enough, I think you might be the dramatic one here, not me.”

“Dramatic?”

Jaemin sighs heavily “Never mind.”

_Korea, Day 1_

_Hey Mark, so I’m starting this back up. I feel like this is a good time to start writing again, I need this. I guess with coming so close to you, there are a lot of doubts too._

_I told Jaemin about some of our memories, obviously the ones before I was put into foster care and we were separated. I told him about us taking Korean together and how you moved, but I mostly told him the good stuff. I know that I probably shouldn’t be able to look back at those memories so fondly, but I can’t help it. I miss us, I miss calling you my brother. And I know what my dad did was wrong, but I’m so glad it brought us together. I remember the first night we spent at the Lee’s, they had everything ready for you. They had set up that nice room, cleaned the house, they even bought you some clothes!_

_I’m also not dumb, I know your family hates me. John probably hates me the most because I ‘stole’ his brother from him. I remember how they looked at me that day, they definitely didn’t want me there. That dinner was probably the most awkward thing I will ever have to sit through, no one knew what to say. That was very different from the dinners we had, there would always be something to talk about. Even when I felt you were drifting away from me, the dinners were always pleasant._

_I guess the point of this entry is to say that I hope you don’t hate me. I hope John and your parents haven’t made you think badly in the years we lost contact. But even if they have tainted you in some way, I think it’ll be okay. You can’t erase 12 years of friendship, no matter how hard you try._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to know what you guys think! As always, thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan for helping me make this sound decent!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this makes up for how boring the other chapters were, I didn’t really know how to set it up. But now I have a decent idea what I want to do! Just some info for this chapter, Johnny is two years older than Mark rather than four. Also the bold is like a flashback (for lack of a better word). Enjoy!!

_Four years ago_

“Okay,” Mrs. Lee says, pushing the door open to their apartment. “We’re home!”

The Lees managed to convince the police to let you spend the night in their care while they try to set you up in a foster home nearby. So now, you and Mark are nervously walking behind the Lee’s as they lead you into the apartment.

“Mom?”

You and Mark freeze, awkwardly standing in the space between the kitchen and the living room. A boy is standing in the hallway, he’s maybe a few years older than you both. He’s staring at Mark as if he can’t quite believe it, as if Mark will disappear as soon he turns anyway or even blinks.

“Oh John,” Mrs. Lee happily cries. “It’s him, it’s really him.”

“I cannot wait to tell you what you’ve missed,” John whispers, walking towards you both slowly. He stops in front of Mark, eyeing him up and down with watery eyes. A small smile spreads across his face, and he pulls Mark into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much, we’re all so glad you’re back.”

Mark turns his head to nervously glance at you, arms hanging awkwardly at his sides. You look over to the Lees who are smiling fondly at the scene from the opposite side of the room. You catch Mrs. Lee’s eyes, who averts her eyes back to the boys and says something in that foreign language.

In response, John lets go of Mark and smiles down at him apologetically. “We’ll talk more after you get settled in, yeah?”

“Um, sure,” Mark mumbles, scratching the back of his neck.

John shoots you a smile, before looking over to his parents

“Okay, now let’s go look at your room.” Mrs. Lee announces, motioning for you both to follow as she walks down the hall. From behind you, you hear John ask Mr. Lee a question. In response, you hear Mr. Lee say your name. His voice has a hateful edge to it, but maybe that’s just how he talks about people he doesn’t know very well.

~~

“So the room might be a bit messy- we only started redecorating a few days ago,” Mrs. Lee explains, looking around the room.

“It looks great, what was it before? I hope you didn’t have to give up anything of yours just to make a room for me,” Mark says shyly, looking around the room to avoid her eyes.

“Oh no,” she answers quietly. “This has always been your room. Joon-Young and I just never had the heart to change it from the room you had when you were three.”

She rubs her arms as if she were cold, smiling fondly. A silence falls around the room as she looks around the newly furnished room, equipped with a queen-sized bed, two bedside tables, and a fancy looking wood dresser. This room has everything a comfortable room should have, even more. Well, everything except the feeling of home.

Clearing her throat, she shakes her head and motions to the dresser. “There are clothes for you in the there, we also bought you a toothbrush that is under the bathroom sink. You can just open the package and take out a new one. Y/n, as we did not expect you to be joining us tonight, we don’t have a place for you to stay. So if you don’t mind sleeping on the couch-”

“It’s okay ma’am, she can sleep with me,” Mark interrupts, looking up to meet her eyes.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she answers hesitantly.

“It’ll really be okay, we’ve done it before. We grew up together, it’s not like this is the first time we’d be sharing a bed,” Mark states, offering a friendly smile.

She meets his stare, face hard to read. Then, something changes and her face softens. She sighs, looking away from him and instead at the wall behind him. “I guess that’s okay, it’s just for tonight anyway.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Lee,” you say quietly, afraid that if you speak too loudly you’ll remind her that she doesn’t like you and change her mind.

She nods her head before turning around to open the door. “Ready to finish the tour?”

~~

“Okay, well dinner will be ready soon, John is a pretty good cook now. I’ll call you when it’s ready,” Mrs. Lee says, opening the door to the bedroom for you two.

“Okay, thank you.”

She nods her head, sending Mark a longing look before retreating to the kitchen.

“I don’t think I can do this,” you admit as soon as Mark closes the door.

“What do you mean?” Mark asks, moving to sit on the bed.

“What do I mean?” You repeat, laughing sarcastically. “I mean, this family hates me. Mrs. Lee only bothers to include you in the conversations, I’m convinced that if I say anything she’ll throw me out in the blink of an eye. I’m only here because you refused to come here without me.” You can feel Mark’s eyes on you as you pace the length of the bed, arms hugging your sides for some comfort. “And then there is Mr. Lee, who hates me. Haven’t you heard the way he talks about me? I guarantee you by the time they ship me out to whatever a foster home is, John will hate me too. And that’s not to mention the fact that our dad has been arrested and no one is telling us anything.”

Looking at him, you stop pacing as you process the emotion in his eyes. Empathy. Straightening your back, you meet his eyes while trying to make any trace of anxiety disappear from your own. If your dad had taught you anything, it was not to let others feel the need to give you looks of pity or anything resembling it. Normally, Mark is the exception. But now, you both are in uncharted lands. Now isn’t the time for empathy.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to say. I’m just as confused as you are, but what can we do? Everyone has painted us to be victims, they’re not going to listen to what we have to say. I think our best bet is to entertain the idea that I am their son, and maybe if we do that well enough they won’t make you leave.”

You wrap your arms around yourself again, letting out a defeated sigh “Mark, we both know that isn’t going to happen. You heard Mrs. Lee, she said that even if they were able to take me in they wouldn’t. All they see me as is the daughter of the man who ‘took’ you, and I can’t live like that Mark. I can’t have these people see me as the villain, I won’t live like that.”

“Then I don’t know, y/n,” he grumbles. “I don’t understand what’s happening either, and like I said, I don’t think they’re going to listen to anything we have to say. So what do you want me to do?”

Rolling your eyes, you suppress a scoff. “Listen, I know this is stressful, but don’t talk to me like that. I don’t expect you to do anything Mark, I’m just talking and hoping that if we talk we can somewhat figure this out. So maybe chill.”

“I don’t know if there is anything to figure out. We don’t know what to do. We’re practically helpless, so I’m sorry if it seems like I’m annoyed. I just can’t stand the idea that these people who have never met us are now deciding how we live our life.”

“What-”

“Dinner’s ready.”

~~

 _“First bus leaves at 4:45 am,_ ” you mumble, folding the paper back in half and putting it into your back pocket. You flip your phone over: _4:41 am._

 _I haven’t had a dream about that time of my life in a long time._ Closing your eyes and leaning back against the bus stop walls, you take a deep breath. _Maybe it’s because I started writing again._

You open your eyes, looking up into the sky. _Mark, I don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t find you._

You bring your head level with the street as you hear the whoosh of the bus pull up next to you.

“Little early, isn’t it?” The bus driver smiles at you as you pull yourself into the bus.

It takes you a second to understand what he said, so you just smile politely, willing your brain to work so early in the morning. “Ah,” you exclaim quietly, understanding the question. “I guess so, but back home it’s only around one in the afternoon.”

“Oh, where are you from?”

“Canada -I’m here for school.”

The bus driver chuckles, looking over his shoulder before pulling out into the main road. “I know, I picked you up from the school bus stop.”

“Ah,” you look away in embarrassment.

“So, where are you going this early?”

“I don’t really know, I just want to see the city before my friend takes me out. Just to get an idea, you know?”

He nods his head, looking up to meet your eyes through the mirror. “A lot of the cafes around here open at 5:30, so maybe stop by there until more stuff opens up?”

“I might, thank you. Do you think you could tell me which stop to get off at if I want to visit my friend who lives on Umanansangil?”

“Umanansangil? In two stops there is a bus stop on the street.”

“Okay, thank you.”

You lean back against the seat, a silence filling the bus. After you and Mark had been taken away from your dad, you’ve loved the mornings. Sure, waking up is a challenge. But being able to go out and be surrounded by people who are too tired to care about you reminds you of when you and Mark still lived together. Where you guys are from, no one would look twice at you.

“Have a good day, sir,” you say, pulling out the appropriate amount of cash.

“You too.”

You step off the bus, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear as you look around the empty streets. You pull out your phone, copying the address you have in your notes and pasting it into Naver Maps.

“ _Oh, how I miss Google Maps_ ,” you sigh, struggling to read the Korean instructions.

 _“Ah-ha!”_ you cheer, successfully starting the directions.

As you make your way down the street, blindly following the colored path on your phone you can’t help the giddy feeling grow with each step. Waking up this morning, the urge to be near him started to grow. While getting ready this morning, a sense of excitement had blossomed. You realize that you’re not going to see him this early, but you’ll be there. You’ll get to be where he is, and that’s enough for right now.

Only now, standing in front of the building, you’re not sure why you came. _“This was a dumb, impulsive decision.”_ You stare up at the living complex looming over you. _“And now, all you feel is anxious. Good job y/n. A+.”_

You rub your hands together, looking up to the brightening sky. _“Why’d you have to make this so hard, Markie?”_

You shake your head, turning around and walking back in the direction you came. You made sure to take note of a cafe that was setting up the first time you had passed.

When you get to the cafe, unsurprisingly it’s empty save for the workers tiredly cleaning the tables.

The worker at the counter looks surprised to see you, but smiles nevertheless as you approach the counter. “What can I get for you?”

“Um, may I have a hot chocolate?”

Tapping the screen, she looks up at you smiling. “Is that all?”

You nod your head, pulling your card out of your back pocket and handing it to her to swipe.

Once you pay, she turns around to start making your drink. Leaning against the counter, you look at the variety of drinks hung on the wall. The first time you had come to one of these shops, you had been amazed that someone knew what to do with this many different liquids. You and Mark had made a promise to try all the drinks at the cafe near his apartment. You guys barely made it through half the menu.

Standing back up, you thank the cashier as she hands you the drink while wishing you a ‘fantastic’ day. Whatever that means.

Turning around, you start walking towards a table you had seen when you had first walked in. The door swings open, and your attention is drawn to a man walking into the cafe. He freezes as he meets your eyes before his hands shoot to move the mask around his chin to cover his face. _Strange_.

Looking away from the man, you continue your walk to the table. Setting your drink on the table, you pull out the chair facing the window so you’re able to watch the city wake up. _That guy was strange, but something about him seems familiar._

“May I sit?”

 _Speak of the devil. “_ Um sure.”

“So, what brings you here so early? _”_ he asks casually.

You want to shift in your seat, but stop yourself before you can show him you’re uncomfortable. _First, he has to sit at my table, and now he wants to talk? He doesn’t have a drink, did he even order?_ “If it’s all the same to you, I don’t really want to answer that. I don’t know you.”

He nods his head, eyes scanning the walls of the cafe before meeting yours again. “Where are you from?”

You smile shyly, casting your eyes downward as you fidget with the cardboard sleeve around the cup “Canada, is my accent that bad?”

_“It’s pretty decent, but as someone who’s around foreigners and Koreans every day, I can hear it.”_

You look up at him, surprised he can speak English. _“Fair enough. And seeing as this is my first time staying in Korea, I can’t say I’m surprised. Where are you from?”_

_“I am also from Canada -Vancouver.”_

You lean back in your chair, feeling more at ease being able to speak comfortably and without much thought. That, and you’re 88% sure he isn’t here to kill you. “ _No wonder you seem familiar, I could probably sense that you are a fellow Vancouver citizen. What are you doing up so early, my fellow Canadian?”_

_“My friends and I have practice, and I drew the short stick in having to go and get everyone coffee.”_

You nod your head, taking a sip of your hot chocolate _“That must suck, having practice so early in the morning.”_

He shrugs his shoulders _“I prefer it to having to work late at night. Plus, we have a comeback soon, so that means lots of practice.”_

You tilt your head to the side, unsure if you heard him right “ _Comeback_?”

 _“Oh,”_ he says, sounding genuinely surprised. _“So you came to Korea not to meet your favourite Korean idol?”_

_“Is that the only reason someone can move to Korea?”_

_“Well if my family hadn’t moved here when I was younger, that’s why I would’ve moved here.”_

Choking on your hot chocolate, you throw your head back, rolling your body to the side and coughing violently into your elbow. The man just laughs softly at your misery.

 _“Are you serious?”_ you ask, having recovered from your near-death experience.

“ _Definitely_ ,” he confirms, nodding his head,

“ _Okay_.” You clear your throat. “ _So back on topic, are you telling me you’re an idol?”_

 _“Sure am!”_ he announces, smiling proudly.

_“Give me your group name.”_

_“Sure, it’s LokInNi.”_

_“And how do you spell that?”_ you ask, taking out your phone.

_“L-o-k-i-n-n-i. Why, do you not believe me?”_

_“Nope,”_ you say, popping the p.

 _“Why not?”_ he pouts slightly as he sinks into his chair.

_“That sounds like a completely made-up word.”_

_“Because it is.”_

Putting your phone on the table, loading screen face-up, you lean back in your chair _“And that helps your case, how?”_

 _“Just look at your phone,_ ” he mumbles, waving his hand dismissively towards your phone.

You smile at the childish action, shaking your head as you pick your phone back up to read the group’s Wikipedia description.

‘ _The idol group LokInNi (Lok from the Thai word Thạ̀w lok, in from the Korean word segyejeog-in, and the ni from the Japanese word Sekai-teki ni. These all mean Worldwide) is composed of 12 members from five different countries. Taeyong, Taeil, Johnny, Yuta, Kun, Doyoung, Ten, Jaehyun, WinWin, Jungwoo, XiaoJun, and YangYang.’_

You look up at him, nodding your head _“Okay, I’ll give it to you that the group exists. But how do I know that this is actually you?”_

_“Look up a photo of Johnny, that’s me.”_

You freeze at the name. _It’s gotta be a coincidence, John is a common name for people. Plus, what are the chances that I meet John here in Korea without actively looking for him?_

Clicking on a website called ‘Kpop Profiles- Lokinni’, you scroll down to the photo of Johnny. And sure enough, it is the man in front of you.

 _“Look at that, it is you,”_ you say quietly, turning your phone around to show him the photo.

_“Yep! That’s me, John Lee.”_

Sucking in a breath you abruptly stand up from the table, causing your chair to scrape dramatically against the ground. He looks up at you, a questioning look on his face. _“You okay?”_

**“I know you went through something terrible, but you need to hear this. He is my brother, not yours. He’s going to forget you eventually, I’ll make sure of that. You’re not good for him, y/n; you’re only holding him back. So you either cut ties with him, or we’ll cut ties with you. Your choice.”**

You nod your head, grabbing your cup from the table _“Yeah, sorry. I just remembered that I’m meeting a friend and am about to be late. Good luck with practice.”_

You turn around, hoping to get out of the cafe as soon as possible.

“ _Hey, please wait,”_ you hear him call, his own chair scraping lightly against the floor.

You freeze, squeezing your eyes shut as you try to force the last words he said to you out of your brain.

**“You’re not good for him, y/n; you’re only holding him back.”**

_“Did I do something to offend you? If I did, I’m sorry.”_

You shake your head “ _Really, I’m fine. Like I said I have to meet someone. So if you don’t mind-”_

_“Do you need me to walk you? It’s still dark out, and if you’re not comfortable being alone this early my members will understand why I came late.”_

**“He’ll forget you eventually, I’ll make sure of that.”**

You slowly take steps back towards the door, checking over your shoulder every few steps to make sure you don’t run into anything. _“I’ll be fine. Plus you shouldn’t deprive eleven people of their coffee.”_

_“Really, it’s no trouble at all.”_

_“John I said no,”_ you snap, wrapping your arms around yourself. _“So please, leave me alone.”_

You timidly look up at him but look back down once you see the slight trace of hurt on his face. But what you miss, is the recognition that flashes after the hurt. _“Okay, I’m sorry I pushed. I just didn’t want anything bad to happen to you, y/n.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope the group name wasn’t too outlandish, it just seemed wrong to have NCT without all the members. So I made my own group name! Thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan, she has helped me make this chapter something I am really proud of. I think this is defenitly the better of what I have posted, so I would really love to know what you guys think! Have a great day/night!!


	6. Chapter 6

_He remembers me, he recognizes me, he remembers me._

You can see that he’s talking, his mouth is moving, but you can’t hear him. Can’t process what he’s saying. That is until you feel his hand on your shoulder. You flinch back, and he retracts his hand as he mutters an apology. 

_“I don’t know what you want from me,”_ you mumble, running your finger over the plastic lid on your cup. _“But please just let me leave. You don’t need to do anything-”_

He smiles softly. _“And what is it that you expect me to do?”_

You feel your breath hitch in your throat. _What is he pulling? He can’t seriously be trying to help me, all he cares about is trying to figure out why I’m here._

_“You don’t have to worry, I’m here for school. Figured all the Korean lessons I took should be put to use.”_

He nods his head, glancing to the left before meeting your eyes again. _“Good, I’m glad. But that doesn’t answer my question, what is it that you think I am gonna do?”_

You feel trapped. It’s like you have been backed into a corner, and it seems like the only way out is to play this twisted game of his. 

_“I don’t know what you’re trying to pull here, but I’m not falling for it. So please just wait for your coffees and we can pretend like we never saw each other here. Deal?”_

_“No deal.”_

You feel the tears building behind your eyes. You’re not built for these types of games. He has to know what he’s doing, no one can be this oblivious. 

“Sorry to interrupt but your coffee is done, sir.” 

Your attention is drawn to the counter where the barista had placed three drink holders, each holding four drinks. He turns around to go collect his drinks, turning his head around to look at you one last time before he starts walking back. 

_Oh thank God._ As soon as his back is completely turned to you, you turn around and practically run out the door. 

It’s lighter than when you were last outside, however it is just as cold as earlier. You hear the bell ding, signaling your leave. No doubt he’s noticed you leaving, you’re just hoping he’s taking the hint to leave you alone. 

You turn your head, checking both sides of the street, before crossing and walking back the way you came. _Please don’t see me, please don’t see me, please don’t see me, please-_

_“Y/n, wait!”_

_“Leave me alone.”_ You call over your shoulder, walking faster. 

_“Come one, I just want to talk. Please slow down.”_ His voice is steady, but you can hear his footsteps as he jogs across the street. He’ll catch up to you in no time. 

You stop, squeezing your eyes shut. 

You hear him come to a stop in front of you. _“Come on, let’s go back to the cafe so we can talk comfortably.”_

_“I’m comfortable enough out here, plus if we are only having a short conversation I don’t see why we can’t just have it out here.”_

You open your eyes and suck in a breath as you look up at him. It might be a bit dramatic to say that you had nightmares about this moment, but playing it over in your head on sleepless nights is basically the same thing. 

He nods his head. _“Fair enough. I just have something I want to say, and then if you still don’t want to be near me you can leave.”_

_“Okay, okay, please hurry. Like I said, I have someone I have to meet.”_ It sounds fake even to your ears, but something in you needs to attempt an escape. _“And seeing as you don’t have your coffees, I’m sure you need to get those as soon as possible.”_

_“Right, of course,”_ he mutters, void of sarcasm, stuffing his hands into his sweater pocket. He takes in a breath, eyes roaming around the buildings, before landing back on you. _“I’m so sorry, y/n.”_

_“For what?”_ You can feel your heart beating in your chest, that trapped feeling from the cafe still with you. 

He lets out a nervous chuckle. _“For um, what I said before we left.”_

You shouldn’t be surprised, that’s the only thing you can think of that he could want to apologize for. Nevertheless, you can’t help the sharp intake of your next breath. _You will not cry in front of him y/n Qinn._

_“I shouldn’t have said that,”_ he rushes _. “It was insensitive, and now that I understand a bit more about... what your situation was like I realized I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”_

You turn your head away from him, bringing the back of your hand to cover your mouth as you feel your eyes sting with tears. _So much for not crying._

_“And you don’t have to forgive me, what I said to someone like you was not okay. I regretted it as soon as we landed in Korea and I saw how sad he was.”_

You feel your body stiffen. You heard that a lot growing up, “people like you”, yet you still haven’t become used to it. _“What does that mean?”_

He tilts his head to the side. _“What does what mean?”_

_“‘Someone like you.’ What’s that supposed to mean?”_

_“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”_

_“I don’t want an apology,”_ you whisper, wiping a tear. You wrap your arms around yourself and try to stand a little taller _. “I want to know what you meant.”_

_“I didn’t - I don’t.”_ He stutters, eyes wide with nervousness. 

_“You know your brother would be considered ‘someone like me’. And I know your family thinks they’re all so much better than me, I saw it every day that I came over, but that doesn’t change the fact that he and I are the same.”_ You have no idea where this bravery is coming from, you can’t remember the last timeyou were this brave. Maybe it’s the fact that a six-foot-something man is standing nervously in front of you.

_“I have no excuse,”_ he whispers after a few seconds of silence. _“It was a horrible thing to say, even now I keep on saying horrible things to you. But I just want you to know that I am so sorry for what I said. If I could take it back I promise I would.”_

You nod your head, allowing another few seconds of silence to pass before speaking again. _“Did you know about the letters?”_

_“I did.”_

_“What about them?”_

_“I know that he talked mom and dad’s ear off about making sure that the first thing they did once we got to the house was figure out what forms they needed to fill out so he could send you letters. I know that for three mounts you both sent letters to each other religiously. I also know.”_ He shifts his feet, casting his eyes downwards _. “That my parents stopped giving him your letters. And when he tried to send more to you, they just threw them away.”_

You feel something inside you break. When the letters stopped coming, it had crushed you. You had thought that something like this is what had happened, but hearing it from someone involved is so much harder. 

_“How did Mark take it?”_

_“I don’t honestly know, but I think he was really sad when the letters stopped coming. Mom said he’d check the mailbox before and after school every day. He even checked on weekends.”_

It made you feel better knowing he cared about you - at one point anyway - as much as you cared about him. _“Okay, now that we’re done here can I go?”_

He tilts his head. _“You-you're not going to ask me to talk to him for you or something?”_

You shrug your shoulders, taking in a shaky breath. _“I don’t know why you would, you may be apologizing but I’m sure you still hate me.”_

_“I never hated you, if anything I was just jealous,”_ he responds defensively. 

You sniffle, nodding your head. _“Right, because I was crazy to come to that conclusion. Anyways, from the lack of a response, I’m assuming I’m right about not wanting to help me.”_

You’d imagined this meeting thousands of times in your head, some better and some worse than the reality you’re in. In some, you yelled at him until his head was hung in shame. In others, he was laughing cruelly as he repeated those same words over and over. In some, Mark was even there. 

You’d never imagined he’d be the first to start the conversation, much less apologize to you. You also never thought you’d find him before Mark.

_“Well that’s where you’re wrong, I’d be glad to help you meet up with my brother.”_

_“Liar,”_ you whisper. Perhaps you could’ve responded better, but nerves mixed with a lack of proper sleep doesn’t leave much room for politeness.

He smiles. _“No, I’m not. I swear I’m not the eighteen-year-old you met.”_

_“If you are telling me the truth, how do you want to do this?” Y_ ou still don’t believe him, but there’s nothing else to lose. If he is being sincere, then that’ll only make your job easier. 

_“Give me your phone, I’ll give you his number.”_

Again, your breath catches in your throat. This seems too good to be true, is it really possible for someone to change so drastically? 

_“How do I,”_ you clear your throat. _“How do I know you’re giving me the right number?”_

_“I’ll put in the number and call him on your phone. I’ll tell him I’m using someone else’s and ask him to look for my phone.”_

_“Will he be awake this early?”_ you ask, pulling your phone out of your back pocket, unlocking it, and shakily handing it to him. 

He nods his head, not looking up from the phone. _“He likes to adjust to a routine before school, so he’s been waking up at 6 the past few days.”_

He looks up at you, showing you the screen before pressing call and putting it on speakerphone. _He’s not going to pick up, why would someone pick up a random call at 6 in the morning? I know-_

“Hello?” 

You slap your hand to your mouth to keep from gasping. _It’s him, that’s his morning voice. This is real, this is happening._

_“Hey Min-Hyung, sorry to call you so early.”_

_“Hyung? Whose phone is this?”_

_“It’s my managers, I think I left mine at home. Would you be a dear and check my room for me?”_

You hear a deep sigh and the rusting of blankets. _“Of course the one time you spend the night here you leave your phone. You know you’re lucky to have me, you know mom would beat you for calling her so early to do something as dumb as this.”_

You suppress a giggle, he still has the same sense of humor.

John rolls his eyes, smiling. _“Yeah yeah, I know I’m lucky to have you. But you know what would make you even better?”_

Mark scoffs _“If I didn’t complain?”_

_“If you didn’t complain,”_ John confirms. 

Mark snorts and you feel your heart swell with love. _He sounds so happy._

_“I don’t see it, are you sure it’s not there?”_

_“Do any of you guys happen to have my phone?”_ A pause. _“Oh, it’s here, Ten found it. Sorry to bother you.”_

_“And you tell me I’m forgetful.”_

_“That’s because you are. Anyways, now that I found my phone I have to go. But we should meet up later.”_

_“What for? I just saw you.”_

_“Yeah, but I don’t know when we’ll get that chance again. Let me just ask what time I’ll have a break and we can meet up then?”_

_“Sure.”_

John puts the phone on mute. _“You said you were coming into town today, what time?”_

_“Oh, uh, one should be good.”_

_“Okay, and back here is good?”_

You nod your head enthusiastically. 

_“Is one okay?”_

_“You say that like I wasn’t just going to spend the entire day inside. Do you want to meet me here or do you want me to come to the company?”_

_“Can we meet at a cafe? The one we went to that time you almost tripped a waitress and made her spill all those drinks.”_

You let out a small laugh as Mark groans. _“Why there? I haven’t been back there since. Plus don’t you think that place will be a bit too busy at 1?”_

John shrugs his shoulders _“Oh it’ll be fine, plus I think it’s time we got over your trauma from that place.”_

_“Hyungggg,”_ Mark whines, letting out a small groan as you assume he flops back onto his bed. 

_“Oh don’t be such a baby. I have to go now, but I’ll see you then okay? Okay, bye!”_

Without waiting for a response, he hangs up the phone. _“Believe me now?”_

You simply nod your head, too shocked to notice him type something into your phone before switching it off.

_“I still can’t believe it’s him,”_ you whisper. _“I’ve waited so long for this moment and now it’s happening in only a few hours.”_

John smiles, handing your phone back to you. _“I’m glad I could help, I gave you my number so if you need anything you can ask. I might not be able to respond very fast, but I’ll try.”_

_“Oh, thank you.”_ You slip the phone into your pocket. _“I don’t know what to say.”_

_“You don’t have to say anything, this is my apology to you. I hope you can see that I’ve changed.”_

_“Well thank you again.”_

You don’t know if you can forgive him yet, those words have been the center of so many anxious thoughts throughout the following years. Maybe once you and Mark see each other, once you’re able to clear some things up, will you be able to tell him that you forgive him. 

_“Not that I think you’ll need help to recognize him, but Mark has blonde streaks in his hair.”_ He chuckles at the thought, shaking his head. _“He let his best friend do it as a birthday gift.”_

You smile at the image. _My dad would’ve killed us if we ever tried to do anything like that._

_“Well I have to go, but text me if you need anything, okay?”_

_“Okay, bye John.”_ You awkwardly wave. 

He chuckles. _“Bye y/n hopefully, I’ll hear about you very soon.”_

He waves to you before turning around and walking back to the coffee shop. 

_Oh. My. God._ You turn around, numbly walking towards the bus station. You take a sip of your drink, scrunching your face at the cold liquid. But despite the horrible taste, you’ve never felt so happy in your life. Never felt so close to having the entire world in your grasp.

Once you were seated at the bus stop, you pulled out your phone to just stare at the unknown number. That’s him, if you wanted to you could call him right now and tell him who you were. You could tell him to meet you sooner, could tell him all the things he’s missed. Could tell him how much you miss him. 

Turning off your phone, you look around the city sighing happily. Deep down, you had had your doubts about coming here, about risking your entire life on this one decision. But now that there was a plan in motion to be reunited with him, you can’t help but feel bad for doubting. You and Mark are destined to find each other, you should’ve known that.

You can feel it already, today is going to be a good day. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get out! I hope this isn’t too much of a filler, I thought it was important to add. Thank you so much to @philosopher-of-fandoms for helping me edit this! I’m excited for the next chapter, I already have an idea of how I want it to go (which isn’t special, but I’m excited 😂). Anyways, have a great day/night!!


	7. Chapter 7

“Thank you for doing this,” you say, nervously bouncing your leg as you glance between the door and Donghyuck. “Thank you also for paying, I didn’t mind buying my own. We’re here because of me anyway.” 

“Of course I had to pay, today is about making you happy and welcome. Anything that makes you happy, we can do,” he answers, taking a drink of his peach white tea. 

You smile, happy he doesn’t mind going off the original plan of simply giving you a tour. “You know I spent my whole childhood with him? He was my best friend.” _My only friend._ “I mean we did everything together.”

“That sounds nice, that sounds nice.” His voice is soft, almost longing. “You know I always wanted a childhood friend like that? I kind of had one when I was in first grade, she was my neighbor. But I switched schools in third grade, moved houses the next year, and we lost touch. We met again in high school, but she’d changed.” 

He chuckles. “The point of that story was to tell you that I think it’s wonderful you’re meeting up with him again. I mean the fact that you found him in a different country is just amazing.” 

“I don’t know if it’s amazing, I mean I knew he lived here. I’m um, I’m sorry about your friend. I don’t know what I’ll do if he’s changed that much.” 

He shrugs his shoulders. “Her and I weren’t meant to be friends, it is what it is. But if you’re willing to come to a whole new country just to find him, I think you guys will be okay.” 

You smile at him, thankful for his words. No one believed in you to make it this far, to actually find him. To hear someone who supported you was a welcome change. “Thank you Donghyuck, that means a lot.” 

**\-----**

_Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. OH. MY. GOD._

You suck in a breath as you see Mark walk through the door. You avert your eyes down to the table. “He just walked in.” 

Donghyuck chuckles. “I thought the point of coming here was to meet him, to do that don’t you need to tell him that we’re over here?” 

“I will, I will. Just give me five seconds.” 

You thought you would be ready, you imagined yourself walking over and introducing yourself thousands of times since John made the appointment. But now, you find yourself rooted to the seat. 

“Donghyuck,” you whisper, afraid Mark will pick your voice out of the crowd. “I’m scared, what if he doesn’t want to see me?” 

_It was dumb to come here, he will turn me away the second he sees me. I mean he sounded close to John on the phone, which means he must have gotten close to the rest of his family. The things they must have told him about me. Oh god, what if he believes them?_

“Don’t be silly.” You’re not looking at him, your eyes are still glued to the table. But you can hear the smile in his voice. “I know if a girl came to another country for me, I wouldn’t turn her away. Even if we had only met a few times I would still acknowledge the effort and make the time to see her. Plus, you guys said you spent your whole childhood together? He’ll want to see you, trust me.” 

You look up at him, and the sincerity in his eyes makes you freeze once more. Mark is the only one who has ever looked at you like that. 

You should find it comforting, but instead, it only makes you feel worse. He shouldn’t be giving you that look, he should save it for someone he loves. Someone who didn’t make him take them to visit the kid their dad kidnapped. 

Suddenly, facing Mark seems like the least lesser of two horrible situations. _Why am I like this? This should be a good occasion and here I am making it awful._

You nod your head, pushing back your chair. “Okay, I’ll go get him. Hopefully, when I get back he’ll be with me.” 

Donghyuck claps his hands, smiling brightly at you. “Good luck y/n, not that you’ll need it.” 

You nod your head again, looking around the café to see where he could be. When you find him, he thankfully is looking out the window across from him. _I know if I keep staring, he’ll sense it and look right at me._

You take slow steps toward him, trying to breathe normally. You keep your eyes trained on the bathroom signs a few tables down from him, planning to circle back so you have a few more seconds to prepare yourself. 

_Man up y/n, this is what you have been working for since he left. You are_ not _going to back out now, not that you could if you wanted to. Donghyuck would probably drag you over here himself if you came back and told him you didn’t even say hi._

Leaning against the wall leading to the bathroom, you take in a slow shaky breath. You run a hand through your hair, hating how shaky it is. _It shouldn’t be like this, he’s my brother for goodness sake. Take control of the situation before you psych yourself out._

Straightening your back, you walk over to him before you can lose any of the courage you have mustered up. 

You know you shouldn’t stop behind him, that would be creepy. You plan to just tap his shoulder. But when you get behind him, you can’t bring yourself to do it. _Really y/n? Really?_

You feel your heart stop as you see his head turn to the side before he eventually turns fully around in his seat to make eye contact with you. 

For a few seconds, neither of you say anything. You just watch as his eyes slowly go wide with realization. 

“I _don’t know if you want me here-”_

You’re interrupted as he suddenly stands up, accidentally pushing the table back a little as he does so, pulling you into a tight hug. 

You heave out a breath of relief, feeling the stress you felt before turn into pure happiness. You hug him back, closing your eyes as you lay your head against his chest. 

“ _I missed you so much, I - I don’t even know.”_

You hug him tighter, feeling your eyes well with tears. “ _I’m so glad you’re not telling me to leave, I don’t know what I’d do if you did that.”_

He pulls away from you, keeping his hands on your arms. “ _Why wouldn’t I want to see you?”_

You shake your head, struggling to come up with a response. _It was stupid to be so nervous, it’s Mark._

“Minhyung-Hyung?” 

You turn your head to see who was talking, surprised to see Donghyuck looking at Mark in confusion.

“Donghyuck?” Mark lets go of your arms so he can turn his body towards Donghyuck. “I thought you were out all day with your buddy?” 

Donghyuck points at you. “You’re with her.”

“You two know each other?” You ask quietly, feeling as if you’re interrupting something. 

Mark nods his head, looking back at you. “He’s basically my best friend, we’re on the same dance team.”

Donghyuck pouts “What do you mean ‘basically’? I _am_ your best friend.”

You laugh softly, but you can’t help the insecure feeling course through your body. 

_He replaced me._

“Do you guys want to sit? I’m meeting my brother here any time now, we can all sit and talk,” Mark offers, already moving to connect a nearby table to the one he was sitting at. 

“Oh, you don’t have to. _”_ Mark looks at you, hands on the table ready to move it. “I ran into him this morning and he helped me set this meeting up. He used my phone to call you.”

_“_ Oh. _”_ He takes his hands off the table and smiles warmly at you. “You’re way better than him anyway. _”_

For a second, you guys just stare at each other. You don’t know about Mark, but this is everything you have been waiting for. He is _here_ and excited to see you, what more is there to ask for? 

“I can see that you guys have a lot to catch up on,” Donghyuck says, eyes flicking between you two. “So I’ll be at the table we were at before y/n. Minhyung-Hyung you’re welcome to join us on the tour if you want.” 

Mark nods his head, breaking eye contact to look at Donghyuck. “I would love to Hyuck, thank you.” 

Donghyuck salutes, nodding his head in your direction before walking back to the table you were at before. 

Mark pulls out the chair closest to him, motioning for you to sit before he sits in the seat opposite you. As you both get settled, you can feel how heavy your heart is beating in your chest. You close your eyes, placing a hand on your chest as you take in a deep breath. 

“ _So what are you doing in Korea?”_

_“Well as you already know, I am enrolled in a school near here. But um.”_ You hesitate, unsure how to tell him that you’re only here to find him. _“I’m mainly here to find you.”_

He doesn't say anything, choosing to lean his head on his hand and look at you. “ _You’re so different,”_ he mumbles, sighing softly. 

You smile softly at him, crossing your legs under the table. “ _As if you aren’t, you look all grown up now. Exactly the same, but grown-up. And look at your hair! You have those bleach highlight things, dad would’ve killed us if we ever tried to do anything like that.”_

You laugh, happy at how easily you two are falling into place. 

Once you realize what you said, what you implied, you feel your smile drop. “ _I am so sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it. It - it’s an old habit.”_

He waves his hand dismissively. “ _It’s okay, don’t stress. Donghyuck is actually the one who did this to me. He said his birthday would only be complete if he could do something ‘fantastic’ to my hair.”_ He pauses, looking around the room awkwardly. “ _How… how is your dad anyway?”_

“ _He’s okay I think, I didn’t really talk with him much before I left. He uh he actually gets out in two years, so I don’t know what I’ll do then.”_ You nod your head, unsure of where to go from here. You didn’t think he was going to ask about your dad. _“But yeah, there are the important Matthew Qinn updates.”_

_“You mean you’re going back to Canada?”_

You hate how unsure his voice is, nothing like it used to be growing up. 

“ _Oh I’m not, not right after this year anyway. Not only because I don’t want to see him, if I’m being honest I don’t know how I feel about him yet. I was planning to use my time here to find you and sort out that part of my life.”_ You shake your head, trying to remember where you were going with this. “ _I mean the reason I’m not going back is that I’m enrolled at Ajou University for four years. After that, I don’t know what I’ll do.”_

He nods his head slowly, taking a slow breath in. “ _You know I was planning to go back to Canada to find you.”_

“ _Really?”_

The idea that he would be willing to come back for you had never crossed your mind. It was always something that you had to do, your driving force behind everything you did. Maybe the fear that he didn’t want to see you had been deeper than you thought. 

“ _Totally. I mean I didn’t have a plan for once I got there, I figured you probably weren’t at the same foster home that you were at the last time,”_ he pauses, looking away from you. _“The last time we exchanged letters.”_

And there it was. 

This was the main concern you had whenever you envisioned finding him. _He will probably blame you_. That was what you told yourself every time you thought about those letters. 

“ _It wasn’t my fault, I swear. I tried so hard, Mark, but -”_ You sigh, looking up to your left before setting your eyes back on him. “ _I don’t know if I should tell you this or what. But when I met John this morning, he told me that your parents - they cut us off.”_

You want to say more, want to defend yourself from the unspoken allegations. But what more can you say? You had been losing the war that was between you and his parents the moment you woke up the next day after sleeping over at their house. Those letters were just the final battle. 

“ _I know.”_

“ _What?”_

_“I know what they did.”_ His eyes are so steady and void of the hurt you expected them to have. _“And I am so sorry I didn’t tell you, I didn’t think there was a way to.”_

_“It’s okay Mark.”_ You close your eyes, shaking your head a few times. “ _Or do you want me to call you Minhyung?”_

He chuckles. “ _Please call me Mark, it’ll be nice to hear. If I’m being honest, Minhyung still sounds weird to me.”_

You nod your head, looking down to hide the smile on your face. You’re the only one who calls him a name he’s comfortable with, the name from your childhood. “ _Good to know. But I am sorry about the letters, that must have been hard.”_

He shrugs his shoulders “ _It’s okay, my parents and I aren’t very close, well for their standards we’re not anyways. And I think it hurt them to see me be close to someone they see as not part of my family. There is no doubt that they did it out of jealousy, not that it makes it any better but I hope you won’t hate them for that.”_

You don’t know if what you’re feeling is okay. Is it okay to feel some joy in the fact that he said he isn’t as close to his parents as they wanted to be? You can’t help the fact that having something they don’t makes you feel like you’ve evened the score after years of them looking at you like you were less than dirt. _Does that make me too vindictive?_

You smile softly. “ _Well that’s all behind us now, now we can talk face to face.”_

“ _Face to face,”_ he repeats, a gin spreading across his face. “I _like the sound of that, way more modern than sending letters.”_

You feel your small smile grow to match the grin on his face. “ _I do too, now we don’t have to wait weeks to talk to each other.”_

“ _Now this is the classy life.”_

You smile, uncrossing your legs and leaning back in your chair. _It’s almost like he never left._

He clears his throat. “ _Well you’ll have to tell me when you start school and I’ll make sure we meet up again before then, probably many times. But we should probably get you back to Hyuck, don’t look now but he keeps staring at us.”_

As soon as Mark tells you not to look, you turn your head to see Donghyuck staring at you both. As soon as you make eye contact with him, he looks back down at his phone. 

Mark laughs, shaking his head. “ _What part of ‘don’t look now’ do you not understand?”_

You chuckle. “ _I thought it was one of those situations where you say ‘don’t look now’ but actually want me to look.”_

_“When has that ever been the case?”_

_“Hey, don’t yell at me. I’m only telling you what was going through my head. No need to be so mean.”_

_“Oh sweetie, if this is what you define as mean, you’re in for a treat if you decide to keep Donghyuck around.”_

“ _Only difference is he’s an actual nice person. Just to be clear, I’m saying he’s been nicer to me than you,”_ you tease, smile never leaving either of your faces. 

“ _Wow, this is how you treat me after years of not seeing each other? Nice to know you don’t give any special treatment I guess.”_

“ _Guess so huh?”_ you answer, standing up and pushing in your chair.

“ _It’s really nice that we haven’t changed,”_ he says standing up, leaning on the back of the chair. “ _I was worried that we wouldn’t be the same.”_

You nod your head in agreement. “ _That was one of the many worries I had too, don’t worry my dude.”_ You flash him one last smile, turning around to start walking back to Donghyuck.

“ _Y/n wait.”_

You hum in response, turning around to face him. 

Instead of saying anything, however, Mark just looks at you. He has such a fond look in his eyes, it’s how he always looked at you when you both were growing up. It always made you feel like you could do anything. 

“ _You’re so pretty,”_ he whispers. 

“ _What was that?”_ You laugh, looking down in embarrassment.

He smiles, pushing in his chair. “ _Simply stating facts.”_

You smile at him, not knowing how to respond. 

Thankfully, he doesn't mind your lack of a response. He walks past you, linking his arm in yours so he can pull you along with him. You laugh softly, squeezing his arm.

“Ready to go?” You ask, stopping in front of Donghyuck’s table. 

He looks up from his phone, looking between you two before standing up. “Ready. Hyung, I assume this means you’re coming along with? “

Mark nods his head, smiling at you over his shoulder. “If that’s still okay, I want to spend as much time with her today as I can.” 

Donghyuck nods his head. “All those wanting to attend the Donghyuck-tour-of-awesomeness, follow me this way.”

He starts walking towards the door, right arm raised in the air how a tour guide would raise a flag. Mark chuckles, shaking his head as he follows behind. 

You smile softly at the scene. “ _Tell him I’ll be right there, I just need to send a text real quick.”_

“ _Loser, you can’t text and walk?”_

You roll your eyes, smiling none the less at his playfulness. “ _No I can’t, you got a problem with that?”_

_“In fact, I do not. I can’t either,”_ he answers, turning around dramatically and walking towards Donghyuck. 

You snort, rolling your eyes once again as you take out your phone. 

Thank you so much for setting this up, 

this is a dream come true 

I forgive you for what you said, I hope 

this can be a new beginning for us 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it happened!! Thank you to @xiaocvlts for helping me to edit. I would love to know what you guys think. Have a great day/night!!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you to anyone reading, I feel so lucky to have you all.

“Jaemin you are not going to believe what happened,” you say, sliding into the seat across from him in the library.

“What?” He asks, smiling as he looks up from his book.

“I found him.”

“Hm?” he hums. “Found who?”

“My friend from Canada, the one I told you about. The guy I came to Korea for.”

“Oh.” He closes his book, leaning back in his chair. “How was it? Was it how you thought it would be?”

You nod your head, feeling your smile grow wider as you think of the meeting. “He remembered me. He said he was happy to see me, that he missed me. I was so scared Jaemin, so scared.”

“Well I’m glad it went well, you were silly to think he wouldn’t want to see you.”

You nod your head, smiling down at your hands. “That’s what Donghyuck said.”

“Oh?” He leans forward, leaning his elbows on the table. “Is that the cute boy who showed you around town?”

“Not this again. You have problems, my friend.”

He laughs, smiling brightly. “It’s just my personality, take it or leave it.”

“Is leaving even an option?”

“Ha ha very funny. You wouldn’t last a day without me.”

“Try me.”

\----

_“So how’d it go?”_

Falling back onto his bed, Mark lets the phone rest next to his head. “ _It went really well, how did you even get that setup?”_

_“I met her in a coffee shop, she was there at like five in the morning. I didn’t know who she was at first, something just felt familiar. So me being the person I am, sat across from her, and started a conversation. She told me she was from Canada and towards the end of the conversation I guess it just clicked.”_

Mark nods his head, feeling a smile spread across his face. “ _Can you believe she did this? I mean she’s attending school in a foreign country, and it’s all for me.”_

Mark chuckles slightly as his brother’s laugh filters through the speaker. _“I think you just have that effect on people. Yuta has met you, what, once or twice and he’s ready to kill for you.”_

He snorts, rolling onto his stomach and hugging his pillow. _“I mean I was going to go back for her, but she actually made it happen. I was too scared to ask mom and dad to go back to Canada. And here she is, braving a whole new language and culture.”_

_“Are you,”_ Johnny hesitates. _“Are you going to tell them she’s here?”_

Mark sighs. He’s been thinking about this ever since he got home from touring the city with you and Donghyuck. He knows his parents didn’t like you, they made it painfully obvious after he had moved to Korea. And while they might not have the typical bond a parent and child have, he is very grateful for all that they have done for him. Lying just feels wrong.

_“What do you think I should do?”_

His brother sighs. _“I don’t know man, I’ve never had a sister my parents dislike. But I mean how bad can it go if you do tell them? Y/n is a grown woman who is here on her own, it’s not like they can really do anything.”_

_“That’s true. But I mean, won’t it be too harsh?”_ Harsh in the fact that he would be reminding them that he loves someone else more than he loves them. “ _Like… yeah.”_

_“I think they love you, and if you say she’s important to you then they’ll slowly learn to accept that.”_

_“Oh, that’s a good idea. Or, and get this, I ignore it until the last second. Equally good idea if you ask me.”_

His brother laughs, and Mark can see him shaking his head. _“Whatever floats your boat, dude.”_

_“You know she was worried I wouldn’t want to see her,”_ Mark says, changing the subject. _“I mean I think that’s another reason I didn’t try going back to Canada, I was worried she wouldn’t want to see me.”_

_“Why is that?”_

_“Because I was a jerk to her. A few months before the police came, I’d been ignoring her to the best of my abilities. And when she was put into foster care, I tried harder but not as hard as I should have.”_ He sighs, closing his eyes as the memories come back. He really is a horrible brother. _“She had it way harder than I did, and I had the nerve to be more concerned about myself.”_

_“Minhyung, there’s nothing wrong with that reaction. You had just found out that your entire life was a lie, how else were you supposed to act?”_

_“But the same could be said for her, I mean it was her own father. I was all she had, and I let her down.”_

_“But she’s here. I can tell you she certainly isn’t here for me, judging by the fact she basically ran as soon as she realized it was me.”_

Mark furrows his eyebrows, looking over to the phone laying on his left. _“I mean I know you guys weren’t BFFs, but why would she run away from you?”_

There’s a short pause before Johnny sighs. _“I said some pretty harsh things to her before we left, I regretted it as soon as we got here. It was a stupid, immature moment.”_

_“What did you say?”_ Mark asks, pushing himself up to sit against his headboard.

_“I don’t know, I-”_ He sighs again. _“I said something about how you’re not her brother, how she’s bad for you. That no matter what, she was going to be cut off from you.”_

Mark never really liked talking about you to anyone, and when he did he always called you a friend from Canada. But hearing someone who knew how much you meant to him, someone who had heard him crying one night because he missed you so much, admit to threatening you. To say he felt betrayed is an understatement.

_“Did you apologize?”_

_“Of course I did, setting up the meeting with you two was my apology. And she said she forgave me, she texted me today saying that. She said she wants to start over.”_ He pauses, taking in a breath. _“I really am sorry, Minhyung. Not that it excuses what I said, but I think I was just jealous. Jealousy is an ugly thing.”_

Mark doesn’t hear his brother nervous very often, a person like Johnny doesn't get nervous, so hearing him nervously rush his sentences is surprising.

_“It is what it is I guess. Did she really forgive you?”_

_“Yeah, I can send you the screenshots if you want. What do you want me to do to make it up to her? I don’t want you to be mad at me Minhyung.”_

_“I’m not mad.”_ Is his immediate response. He sighs, running a hand through his hair.

He hasn’t felt this in a long time, the overprotective feeling you get for a sibling. It’s something that used to suffocate him, something he wished more than anything he didn’t feel. It’s why he tried to push you away. If you can’t stop the feeling, stop putting yourself in situations to feel said feeling.

_“You didn’t mean it, did you? I mean I know mom and dad stopped sending the letters, but you didn’t have anything to do with that did you?”_

_“No,”_ Johnny replies immediately. _“I didn’t know until they told me months later. Everything else I said, I didn’t mean either. It all came from a place of hurt. I’m not trying to justify myself, but it was hard for me to see my younger brother happier with a stranger than with me. And I know now that that isn’t anyone's fault but Matthews. But I didn’t know it then. I unfairly blamed her and you have to believe me when I say I am truly sorry.”_

And there it is, the truth he’s been hiding from. It’s his fault you went through so much.

Because he was scared, because he relied on you too much, you got hurt. It’s been like that your entire life, with your dad and his family alike. He turned a blind eye as his parents made subtle comments, reminding you you were in no way a part of his “family.” All because he was trying to kill that stupid protectiveness.

His therapist had told him it wasn’t his job to look after you, that you were your own person, and could look after yourself. How ridiculous is that? Yes, he wanted to stop. But hearing it from someone else - someone who didn’t know that even though he was trying to stop, he couldn’t - was wrong. His entire life, he had been looking after you, making sure weren’t hurt too badly. And now he’s just supposed to stop because he has better, more responsible adults in his life? You two were by far the most mature ones in the room.

_“Mom and dad probably don’t see it like that, huh?”_

His brother sighs. _“Probably not. But like I said, they love you. So if you tell them she is important, I think they will learn to be okay with her. That’s what happened with me after all.”_

He nods his head, letting a few seconds of silence pass. _“Well you should get some rest, I’m sure you’re tired. I’ll talk to you later?”_

_“Yeah, yeah of course.”_ He mumbles dejectedly.

_“Alright, good night Hyung. I love you.”_ They don’t normally say “I love you” to each other when they end a phone call, but it feels important to say now.

_“Good night, love you too.”_

And with that, the line goes dead.

Mark shakes his hair with his hand, groaning. _Why does life have to be so hard?_

Grabbing his phone, he goes to his text conversation with Donghyuck, clicking the last photo sent to him.

It’s a photo of you and him in front of some book store. It had been awkward for him to ask, he never asks to have photos taken of himself. Donghyuck’s comment of “why don’t you ever ask to get photos taken with me?” hadn’t helped his confidence either. But thankfully, you agreed as soon as he asked. And after some more complaints, Donghyuck had taken the photo.

The photo was worth the added drama created by both him and Donghyuck. Because now, he has something to remember you with. Sure, he has the letters you sent. But those were tainted with the stress and sadness from his parents, hidden away in the bottom of his middle desk drawer.

This was only happiness.

Smiling at the photo, he saves it to his phone before opening his conversation with you. He’s going to make it up to you, going to make sure you don’t regret coming back for him.

_You should come to mine and Donghyuk’s performance on Monday. Afterwards I’ll buy you dinner_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to @staymoarmyzen for proofreading and making me feel better about this chapter. I fought off writer's block to get this out, so I hope it isn't too over the place. I would love to know what you guys think! Have a wonderful day/night!!


	9. Chapter 9

“Guess what?” You say excitedly, as the two of you settle into auditorium seats.

“What?” 

“Mark invited me to your performance!” 

Donghyuck turns his head to look at you, shifting in his seat. “You mean today? Are you coming?” 

“Of course, I’m really excited.” 

Donghyuck nods his head, breaking eye contact to look around the theatre filled with foreign students and their buddies. “Well it’ll be fun to have you there, do you know where it is?” 

“Yeah, Mark sent me the address. But if you could tell me where to go, I would also like to hear that. I’ll probably get lost if I don’t have somewhat of an idea where I am going.” 

“Even with a map?” 

“Even with a map.” 

He chuckles, shaking his head. “If you want, you can come with me. I have to be there earlier, but you can come backstage with me and talk to everyone. But if you don’t want to be there for that long or don’t feel comfortable around people you don’t know, I can just give you the directions.” 

“No, I want to go with you. I’ll probably get lost, and it would be nice to meet yours and Mark’s friends.” 

He nods his head. “Okay, then. I have to be there at 5:00, so do you want to meet me in front of the library at 4:30?” 

You nod your head, looking forward at the blank whiteboard.“So what is this for again?” 

He shrugs his shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine, something about welcoming you to the school I think.” 

“After four days?” 

He shrugs his shoulders. “Guess so.”

\----

“Are you sure I can be here?” you ask, shifting your eyes across the room. Everyone in the room was dressed in their performance clothes, making you feel out of place. 

“I’m sure, this is just where all the teams wait when they’re not on stage,” Donghyuck says, motioning to the different groups of people. “Each team just picks a section of the room and that’s where they wait. Ours is over there, with all the bags.”

You let out an ‘ah’ as you see the section he was talking about. In the left corner of the room, a bunch of backpacks were leaned against the wall. Next to them, Mark and one of the boys in his team stood talking while the rest of his team, or who you assumed is the rest of his team, sat huddled around something one of them was holding.

“ _Mark,”_ you call, waving your hand once you catch both the boy he was talking to and his attention.

“ _Y/n?_ ” Mark whispers something to the boy, who nods his head, whispering something back, before walking towards you. _“What are you doing here?”_

You and Donghyuck come to a stop, meeting Mark halfway. _“Donghyuck invited me to come early with him so I could talk for a bit with you. Plus, I wanted to meet your other friends.”_

He smiles, eyes lighting up. You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, glad he wasn’t mad you decided to come early. 

_“Then follow me and let the Dream tour begin!”_ He announces, raising his arm as if he were rallying up a crowd.

_“Dream tour?”_

_“Dream tour,_ ” he repeats, looking you dead in the eyes, nodding once.

You confusedly nod your head, smiling at the strange gesture. 

“First up, we have Lee Donghyuck. Seeing as he isn’t very important, that’s all I will say for him.” 

“Sure, use Korean to say the mean thing, I get it.” 

“See, nothing important. Moving on!” 

You laugh at the playful banter, Donghyuck letting out an offended scoff. 

“It’s okay, it was you or me,” you comfort, pulling Donghyuck’s sleeve lightly as you follow Mark back towards the boy he was talking to before. 

“It should have been you.” 

“And this is Jisung,” Mark introduces, cutting you off before you can respond to Donghyuck. “Jisung this is my friend, y/n.” 

“Jisung is our genius dancing baby,” Donghyuck coos, taking a step forward and reaching his hand up towards Jisung’s face. 

Jisung swats his hand, clicking his tongue at Donghyuck before turning his attention to you, bowing his head slightly. “It’s nice to meet you y/n-ssi.” 

You smile, bowing your head back. “Oh, just y/n is fine. Or if you’re younger than Donghyuck, you’re younger than me. So y/n or y/n-noona is fine.” 

You trial off at the end, worried you’re rambling. You inwardly cringe at yourself, feeling as if you just made the wrong kind of impression. _Why must I suck at talking to people?_

He smiles shyly, turning his head to look at Mark. “Is she the person you were talking about?” 

“Yep.” 

“All good things I assume?” 

“I told him about the time you hit me with a pillow in your sleep.” 

You tilt your head to the side. “When was that? I don’t remember you telling me that.” 

“When we had our beds pushed together, remember? _You were scared of the dark so we pushed my bed over to yours.”_

You roll your eyes, scoffing slightly. _“Oh, I remember now. First of all, you were also scared of the dark so don’t even try me. Second of all, I was awake when I hit you. You kept moving in your sleep and it was annoying, so I hit you.”_

“Um Noona, if it makes any difference he wasn’t telling me that. He was just saying how excited he was that you were coming today,” Jisung offers quietly, coming to Mark’s defense as he looks away from Mark’s ‘offended’ face to you and then to the ground. 

“Oh, well that’s nice of him. Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” You tease, smiling widely at Mark. 

You’ve missed this, missed the jokes and teasing between you two. 

“I was trying to be funny,” he mumbles. 

“Good to know your sense of humor hasn’t changed.” 

“Hyung, you had a bed at her house?” 

You feel your heart stop at Donghyuck’s question. You’d gotten so good at censoring yourself when talking about him to other people, but you never thought about how to censor yourself while talking with him to other people.

And judging by Mark’s wide eyes, he feels the same. 

“I lived with y/n and her dad for a bit,” Mark answers, eyes never leaving yours. “Their house was pretty small so we shared a room.” 

“Ah,” Donghyuck says, tone suggesting he didn’t know what else to say. Not that you blame him, what can you say to that without sounding intrusive? “That must have been fun,” 

“It was.” A silence settles over you four, and you break eye contact with Mark to look at the ground, a nervous feeling settling in your gut.

Mark claps his hands, causing you to timidly look up at him. He’s still looking at you, gaze unwavering. He smiles at you, causing a small smile to come back to your face. 

“Shall we move on? I think you’re really going to like my next friend.” His smile widens and he cups his hands around his mouth. “ _Lucas_ ,” he yells, placing extra emphasis on the ‘cas.’

_“Ayo man, what’s up?”_

\--- 

You smile widely, watching Mark and the rest of the guys walk on stage, shuffling into position. 

Your opinion doesn’t exactly matter at this point, but you like his friends. 

You hadn’t had the chance to have an in-depth talk with them, but the conversation you did have was enough to dismiss any worries you had about them not liking you. 

Jisung is sweet and awkward, Chenle and his cousin Lucas are loud and easily excitable, Jeno and Kunhang are just Mark’s type of weird, while Donghyuck holds a strange mixture of all three. You love the different personalities they all have.

But by far, the best part of the team is how much Mark loves them and vice versa. Him, Lucas -or Yukhei as you found out, having witnessed Chenle threaten to tell his mom on him about something-, Chenle, and Kunhang had met at school when they were all transferring (or in Chenle’s case, enrolling) to Korea Kent Foreign School. They’d met the other three at a dance studio, formed a quick bond, and started their own dance crew a year later in Chenle’s basement. 

Despite the language barrier at the beginning (which still kicks in every now and again from what you’ve seen) and different personalities, it’s easy to see how much they love each other. 

It’s everything you wanted for him. 

Shaking your head as the music starts, you focus your attention on the boys. 

Donghyuck was right to call Jisung their dancing baby, he’s an amazing dancer. During his solo, you can feel the breath get caught in your throat. If someone told you that was the sweet boy you met twenty minutes ago, you’d laugh. No way could he have such a mature style to him. It’s amazing to you, watching someone so young capture an audience full of parents and friends of other performers. 

And while Jisung’s solo is the highlight of the routine and something you’ll congratulate him on, Donghyuck’s mini solos are something that makes your breath stop every time. Jisung’s solo is about showing off his sharp dancing, but all of Donghyuck’s solos are about holding the audience’s attention while the others get change formation. His style is so fluid, so time stopping. Something you’ll look forward to at other performances.

On top of showcasing each of their talents, you can see all the work they must have put into this performance. You can feel their strong sense of teamwork through the performance, better than the two teams before them. And you’re willing to bet better than the two teams that follow them. 

When their performance ends, and they’re taking a bow, you’re one of the many giving a standing ovation. Despite not knowing all of them for long, you can’t help but feel a sense of pride well in your chest. As you make eye contact with Mark, you feel your smile stretch wider. 

They all look so happy, so proud.

When the final curtain closes after the teams have taken their final bow, you’re not quite sure where to go. You hadn’t thought to ask Mark where you should meet them, forgetting that it wasn’t just their team performing and that the lobby would probably be full of people waiting to congratulate their chosen team.

Getting up, you follow everyone in your row out into the lobby. You pull out your phone, hoping to see a text from Mark or Donghyuck telling you where to meet them. 

“Y/n, over here.” 

You look up from your phone, standing on the tips of your toes to try and find who called you. You smile, spotting Lucas across the room frantically waving his arm back and forth to try and get your attention.

“You guys did so well,” you gush as soon as they’re in earshot. “I never was interested in dance before this, but now I think I have no choice but to become a fan. You all did a good job, congratulations.”

“Thank you, we’re glad you could make it,” Chenle says politely, a teasing tone taking over. “Minhyung-Hyung was excited for you to come, he kept saying how someone special was coming and we needed to be on our ‘best behavior,’” Chenle says, doing what you assume is an imitation of Mark saying “best behavior.” 

“We all know he was talking about you, Kunhang, and Yukhei,” Donghyuck comments.

Chenle clicks his tongue. “Says you.” 

“Yeah, says me.” 

You laugh, shaking your head at the playful teasing. _He really got lucky here._

“Speaking of Mark, where is he?” 

“Oh, I don’t know,” Donghyuck says, breaking his intense eye contact with Chenle to look around the room. “He told us to go find you and then just left. He’s probably just in the bathroom.” 

You nod your head, another smile spreading across your face as you turn your attention to Jisung. “Jisung, you did amazing with your solo, I was in love. How can you be so good?”

He smiles shyly, avoiding your eyes as he brings his hand to rub the back of his neck. “Thank you, Noona.”

“Oh hey,” Donghyuck says, cutting you off from more praises, pointing to somewhere behind you. “There’s Hyung.”

You turn around, ready to spoil him with kind words, before quickly turning back around, feeling your heart stop. 

_You’re dead Mark Lee, dead._

“Hey boys, you guys did amazing as always. Jisung congratulations on your solo, Minhyung told me how hard you were preparing for it.” 

You don’t look at Jisung, your eyes are trained to the ground in front of you as you debate if flat-out running away is too much, but you can hear the smile in his voice. “Thank you, Mrs. Lee.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to @vitamarkie and @staymoarmyzen for proofreading! 
> 
> I appreciate everyone who is reading this, I hope you all have a great day/night!!


	10. Chapter 10

_Three years ago_

“Let me check the address one more time,” you say, pulling back the piece of paper before he could grab it.

He chuckles, letting his arm fall to his side. “You’ve already checked it like three times, I think it’s good.”

“I have to make sure it’s right,” you mumble, running your eyes over the numbers and spelling each word in your head. After checking the address for the last time, you hand it to him. “I mean you’re moving across the world! Excuse me for worrying.”

He laughs, folding the paper in half and tucking it into one of the pockets of his backpack. “I’m kidding, I appreciate the sentiment.”

And then it’s silent.

This is your last time seeing him for the foreseeable future. No more walking home together after school. No more hour-long talks sitting on his bed. No more anything.

“And you promise to try and write to me within your first week there?” You push back the tears wanting to escape, you balling your eyes out is not going to be the last thing he sees of you. “I want to know what it’s like and how exciting it is to be in a new country.”

He smiles at you, his own sadness coming through his eyes. “Of course, I won’t stop writing if you don’t.” **  
**

You smile, looking up at him.

He’s taller than you, he has been for a while. But no matter how many years it’s been since he’s grown taller, you keep expecting him to be your height again. You remember when he was even a few inches smaller than you, how cool you felt being taller. So when he started getting taller than you, you had threatened to chop him off at the knees. He laughed every time, rolled his eyes, and called you dramatic.

But now it’s staring you in the face and you didn’t know that little memory could make you feel so empty.

“Hey,” Mark says, breaking you out of your thoughts. “I promise I won’t stop writing okay? You’ll always have me.”

You nod your head, looking away from him to keep yourself from crying. 

“Yeah, I know. We’ll be okay.”

**\---**

“Hey, you okay?” Donghyuck asks, placing a hand on your elbow.

“Um yeah, just give me a moment.”

“Donghyuck-ah, did you finally ask out that girl Minhyung told me about?”

Your mind freezes knowing that you are now cornered into letting his parents know you’re here.

That and the tone she uses with Donghyuck is so loving. It really is just you she doesn’t like.

You feel Donghyuck retract his hand, watching as he instead clasps his hands behind his back. “Ah, no, not yet. This is actually Minhyung-Hyung’s friend, I think you’ll know her.”

Taking a deep breath and putting a small smile on your face, you turn around. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, nice to see you again.”

You will admit, the look of shock on her face momentarily makes you forget the fear bubbling up.

But as soon as the forced smile makes its way onto her face, you feel it flood back.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here. Hello, y/n.”

You just nod your head in response, looking over to Mark. You try your best to glare at him, wanting him to fix this in some way.

“Well, I’m sure my parents want to catch up with y/n for a bit, so we’ll meet you guys at the restaurant, okay?” Mark says, ignoring your glares to smile at the rest of his team.

“Okay, text us when you’re on your way,” Jeno smiles, looking over to the Lees. “It was nice seeing you again, thank you for coming.”

Mrs. Lee smiles at Jeno, her fake smile replaced with a genuine one. “Oh, you too Jeno Again, congratulations on the fantastic performance.”

The four of you wait in silence as the rest of the boys slowly push their way through the crowd. Before he disappears into the crowd, Donghyuck turns to look at you one more time, worry written across his face. You weakly smile at him, aware that you’re not fooling anyone.

 _“Let’s go outside,”_ Mark says, breaking the silence.

As you step outside, you notice the comfortable temperature. You take a deep breath, closing your eyes as you try to ignore the pounding in your chest. This is probably one of your favorite things about Korea, the warm nights.

 _“So when did you get here?”_ Mr. Lee asks politely as you all shuffle into a circle of sorts.

Out of the two of them, Mr. Lee is your favorite. Unlike his wife, he never seemed to dislike you. At most, he seemed uncomfortable by your presence.

 _“Either this week or last, I don’t really remember.”_ You laugh awkwardly. _“I’ve been so busy the days are kind of mushing together.”_

He laughs politely, averting his eyes to look at Mark.

 _“Right,”_ Mark starts, looking between his mom and dad. _“Okay, let me first apologize for not telling you guys she was here. I only found out yesterday, but I still thought it was best to wait to tell you.”_

_“And why is she here?”_

_“I wanted to see him again,_ ” you answer, despite her asking Mark. _“I found a university to attend that agrees with what I want and I was looking to get out of Vancouver. Coming here just seemed like the best option.”_

_“And I know that you didn’t get along in the past, so I was hoping that now since y/n and I are adults, you’ll be able to start over.”_

You internally chuckle at his bluntness. If you’re being honest, you always thought this was going to go unaddressed for the rest of your life. That everyone would just tip-toe around the fact that Mrs. Lee can’t stand your presence.

 _“I don’t understand,”_ she sputtered. _“I thought if we moved here and stopped all contact, you’d be able to forget her. And you were doing so well Minhyung, don’t you see that? You stopped talking about her, started making new friends; you became everything I ever wanted for you. Can’t you see that the thing holding you back was her?”_

You understand her reasoning, you do. But you’ll never understand how she could be so hostile towards a kid, especially one her own son’s age. _Isn’t that how parents should be? They care about any child close to their own kid’s age._

 _“Mom, I know it’s hard, and I can understand that. And like I said, I know that you two have never really gotten along, but she’s important to me. I was actually,”_ he hesitates, eyes flicking to the ground before looking back at his mom. _“I was actually planning to go back to Canada sometime to find her again.”_

You don’t miss the hurt look that flashes across both Mr. and Mrs. Lee’s faces, the latter staring at you in disbelief. _“Minhyung how could you? I thought you were happy here with us?”_

 _“And I am,”_ he takes a step forward, smiling at his mom. “ _I love you both, but I also love her. I know that you don’t see her this way, but she’s my family. I would do anything for her like I would you guys and Johnny-Hyung.”_

_“But she -”_

“Eu-In,” Mr. Lee says, cutting his wife off. “Maybe we should talk about this first.”

“No, I want her to hear this,” she turns to you, eyes burning. _“I know you think you have some connection with our son, but you don’t. I thought if we came here and kept up his therapy, all the crap you and your father filled his head with would slowly fade. But now you’re here, setting back all the progress he’s made. I suppose it’s too late to have you withdraw from the university, so I’m just going to ask you to leave my son and our family alone.”_

“ _Mom_!”

You suck in a breath, a sad smile spreading across your face as you continue to stare at the sidewalk. You always knew this was how she felt, she was never subtle about it. But just like hearing how they cut you two off, it’s different hearing it be said. So much more hurtful.

 _“I know that you’re mad at me for what happened.”_ You hate how quiet your voice is. You haven’t felt like this, so powerless, since the last fight between you and your dad. _“But I was a kid when it happened, I didn’t tell my dad to take him.”_

_“We know that y/n, we don’t blame you for the kidnapping.”_

You look up, the sad smile returning at Mr. Lee’s words. _Right, they don’t blame me for the actual kidnapping but everything else._

_“Then what do you blame her for? It’s not like she could have known, we were completely in the dark.”_

_“Mark,”_ you whisper, grabbing his elbow. Him getting angry at his mom is the last thing you want. _“Calm down, it’s okay.”_

 _“That, that is what she’s at fault for,”_ she hisses, gesturing to you and Mark. _“Don’t you get it? Every second you spend with her is a second you spend reliving those days and a second she can call you that name. It’s sending you back to a time when you were away from your real family and forced to play house with those sick people.”_

 _“But I wasn’t forced,”_ he refutes, shaking his head. _“I didn’t know any better. I know this is going to be hard to hear, and it isn’t true anymore, but I did love him. I thought he was my dad, after all.”_

You involuntarily look over to his dad. As made obvious, his wife hates the idea that Mark still thinks of you as family. For her, that is the most hurtful part of this situation. But as Mr. Lee never had an explicit problem with you, you can imagine that for thirteen years of his life, Mark Lee looked at another man and loved him as his father is the hard part.

 _“You don’t mean that,”_ Mrs. Lee responds immediately. Despite her voice being strong, her eyes looked helpless.

 _“But I do, and that’s what I want you to understand. Y/n and I, we were kids. We loved each other and the only other person in our lives, Matthew. But that was then, and I can tell you now that I do not care about him. I don’t think about him anymore, I don’t miss him, and I most certainly do not love him.”_ He pauses, looking at you as he wraps an arm around your shoulder. _“But I do love her, she’s still my family.”_

 _“That was well said Minhyung,”_ his dad says hesitantly. _“Why don’t you both go celebrate with your friends, and when you get home we can talk about this some more?”_

You look over to Mrs. Lee, expecting her to disagree in some way. But instead, she’s staring at Mark. She looks hurt, betrayed even. To even think that her son would side with you, you can imagine the horror.

You look up at Mark, expecting to see some kind of regret. But there isn’t any.

_“Yeah, that sounds good. See you guys when I get home.”_

And with that, he turns you both around, arm still around your shoulders, and starts walking back into the building. The lobby is practically empty now, only filled with five small groups of people.

 _“Thank you,”_ you say as you both turn into the hall leading to the backstage room.

He takes his arm off from around you to pull open the door. _“What for?”_

_“For that.”_

He smiles, walking over to where the mound of backpacks used to be, picking up the only one still there. _“You don’t need to thank me silly, I probably didn’t do anything.”_

You shrug your shoulders, watching as he pulls his phone out of the bag before slinging it onto his shoulder. _Is it safe to keep all their personal items unattended for so long?_

_“You still did it, and I don’t know, it just makes me feel like you like me.”_

He laughs, quickly typing something on his phone before sticking it into his back pocket. _“Well, I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”_

You snort, following him as he walks back out the room. _“And what idea was I supposed to get from that?”_

 _“That I did that only because if I didn’t you’d hit me,”_ he teases, pushing the door wide enough so he could barely fit through, making a point not to hold it for you.

You scoff at the childness, smiling nevertheless once you open the door and see him waiting at the bottom of the steps for you. “ _Oh, sure, blame the innocent person. You totally had that last part memorized. No way you could think of that on the spot.”_

 _“Oh y/n._ ” He shakes his head dramatically, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he walks in the direction of what you assume is the restaurant you’re meeting his friends at. _“Yee of little faith._

_“Am I wrong?”_

_“I plead the fifth.”_

_“We’re in Korea, idiot. Plus, we’re Canadian so shouldn’t you say the Canadian equivalent to ‘I plead the fifth?’”_

_“I plead the fifth.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I feel like this is more on the lesser side of my writing so I would love to know what you think! Thank you to @sleepyyangyang for pushing through the confusion and proofreading this for me. Have a great day/night!


	11. Chapter 11

_Three years ago_

“Y/n!” Mark calls as he runs down the steps of the school to where you’re waiting. 

You smile worriedly as you watch him, afraid he’d trip and break something. “Did something happen? You’re more excited than normal.” 

He comes to a stop in front of you, smiling widely. “I got us tickets to see that movie you wanted to see!” 

You feel a smile spread across your face. “Really?” 

He nods his head excitedly. “And I already talked to Anne and Jack about it, so you don’t have to worry about them saying no.” 

“And you have the tickets?” 

“Yeah, let me show you.” He reached into his back pocket to grab his phone, quickly unlocking it, and turning the screen to show you the confirmation e-mail. “It was this movie, right? The one about the girlfriend and the kids?”

You snort at his description, leaning closer to look at the screen. “Nice description, but yeah. That’s the right movie.” 

“I even made sure to get seats in the back, just like you like,” he grinned, slipping his phone back into his pocket.

In all your years of knowing Mark, he had never been this organized. The last time he tried to buy movie tickets, he had ended up only buying them in a theater an hour away. He wasn’t intentionally un-organized, rather, he was just in too much of a hurry to double-check his facts. So the fact he even remembered to talk to your foster parents is surprising, to say the least. 

“What’s the occasion?” 

He tilts his head to the side, laughing slightly, “Don’t be silly, it’s just for us. There isn’t any occasion.” 

But when his eyes met yours, you could see something was wrong. When he was showing you the tickets, he had been genuinely excited. But now, there was something else, something sad. 

“Okay,” you whisper, nodding your head. You don’t know what’s wrong, but he’ll tell you when he’s ready. There have never been secrets between you two and that won’t ever change. 

He shakes his head, excitement taking over once again. He links his arm with yours to get you to start walking again. “Awesome! Then I say we also stop at the smoothie place and try the last flavor we haven’t had yet.”

\---

“I don’t want school to start,” Jaemin whines, dropping his phone dramatically onto the picnic table. 

Chuckling, you look up from the Korean practice book Jaemin bought you. He was now your self-proclaimed Korean teacher. “You’ve already said that five times, I think I got it.” 

He pouts, making a point to slouch his shoulders. “But you don’t care.” 

“You’re right, I don’t.” 

He lets out a dejected _humph_ , turning his body away from you. 

You laugh, marking your place and setting the book on the table. “Aw, did I hurt your feelings?” 

He jokingly glares at you, opening his mouth to respond. 

“Y/n?” A voice cuts him off, and you and Jaemin look towards the speaker. Smiling, you wave Donghyuck over. “I was just about to text you.” 

“Oh?” You watch as he makes his way over to the table you and Jaemin are sat at, scooting over slightly as he takes a seat next to you. “What for?” 

“I was just going to ask you a question,” he says before abruptly turning his attention to Jaemin, eyes lit with recognition. “You’re Jeno’s roommate right?” 

Jaemin smiles. “That’s me! You’re the boy who borrowed his English book right?” 

Donghyuck chuckles. “That’s our child, we split the cost on one book and trade-off using it when we need it. Just so happens my class is first.”

You snort. “Won’t that be hard when it comes to studying?” 

He shrugs his shoulders. “That’s a problem for another time.”

You and Jaemin chuckle at what is sure to turn into a disaster, and Donghyuck smiles softly at you. 

“Anyway, what was the question you wanted to ask?”

“Oh right.” Donghyuck looks away from you, looking up and around at the trees before looking back at you. “You mentioned at dinner that you liked scary movies, and one of the Buddy coupons is for the movie theater. I checked, and the theater has a new American horror movie showing and I wanted to know if you wanted to go?”

“Sure!” you respond immediately, surprising Donghyuck with the fast answer. “When do you want to go?”

“Well, our first day is tomorrow, right? Let’s go out to celebrate?”

You nod your head, smiling brightly. “Sounds like a plan.” 

To say you were surprised was an understatement. Not only did he remember the type of movie you like, but also made a point to find one in English. 

“Awesome! Then I guess I’ll get going.” He stands up from the table, smiling slightly at Jaemin before turning his attention back to you. “Text me when your last class is and we’ll make a plan from there.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow.” 

He waves to you both, continuing the way he was going before he saw you. 

“You’re not even going to ask what the movie is about?” Jaemin asks as soon as Donghyuck had walked far enough away.

You shrug your shoulders, turning back to Jaemin. “I don’t care what we see. If he wants to go, I’ll go. Plus, it’s a free movie. Who am I to complain?”

“Look at you, taking advantage of someone. I’m so proud.” 

“Jokes on you, I don’t know what ‘taking advantage’ means.”

\---

“How was your first day of classes?” Donghyuck asks as the bus starts moving, his cheeks slightly red from the running you two had just done. 

You hadn’t had the time to talk before, seeing as Donghyuck had read the bus schedule wrong and you two had ten minutes to make it from your class to your dorm to drop off your bag and then to the bus stop. Overall, the most running you’ve done in a while. 

“It was pretty okay, it isn’t too hard so that’s good. How did you like your classes?” 

“It went pretty good, I’m excited for the year.” He pauses, a small smile spreading across his face. “I’m excited to be on my own these next few years.” 

You turn your attention away from the city outside the window to look at him. The thing you remember most from your graduation was how sad everyone was to leave. The majority of your classmates didn’t want to leave the security of the known around them, even if that meant they were moving towards something better. 

So to hear someone else who seems to have the same hopes- that is, excited to prove that we can survive and grow without the direction of adults in our life- is not something you expected to hear. 

And maybe you’re reading too much into the situation, but you had begun to think there was something wrong with wanting to leave and never come back. 

You smile, nodding your head slightly. “I get it, being on our own is exciting.” You bring your hands up to make air quotes for the “our own. ”

He looks away from whatever he was focusing on in front of him to direct his smile to you. “How are you liking Korea so far?” 

“Oh, I love it. I love the-” you scrunch your face, drumming your fingers against each other as you try to think of the right phase. “I love how different the city is from Vancouver. Not only is the city nice, but I love the people here.” 

He laughs, “You mean Minhyung-Hyung?”

“No not just him.” You raise your hand to playfully slap his shoulder as you would Mark or Jaemin, stopping before you can hit him as the thought that if you were to hit him, it might make him uncomfortable flashes through your mind. Instead, you bring your hand to rub the back of your neck. “Jaemin is a great friend. I also hope we can become close friends.” 

His smile widens and he nods his head. “I also hope we become close, I need you to tell me all of Hyung’s secrets.”

\---

You smile a thank you as Donghyuck holds the door open for you, stepping to the side awkwardly and looking at him to show you where to go.

“I already bought the tickets,” he says, leading you in the direction of the snack counter. “All that’s left is to buy the snacks.” 

“Oh, is that also covered by the school? I don’t want to waste your money.” 

“Yeah, it’s covered.”

“I haven’t been to the movies in a very long time,” you say as you come to a stop in the line. You smile at an excited boy in front of you whose hands are pressed against the glass display separating him and the candy. 

“Really? Well, how about we go get something to eat after the movie?” 

You open your mouth, ready to ask him about the money. 

“And before you can ask,” he adds, turning to look at you knowingly. “I have a coupon for one of the restaurants around here. Like a package deal.” 

You repeat the word ‘package’ in your head a few times hoping it isn’t an important word to understand the sentence. Ignoring the unfamiliar word, you turn to look up at him. “Sounds fun! It’s really cool that the school pays for these things.”

He smiles at you, eyes briefly flicking away from yours. “Yeah, from what I understand they’re proud of our foreign program.” 

You nod your head, turning your attention back to the kid, who is happily bouncing with his candy. You smile, following him and his mom with your eyes as he excitedly drags her to a theater with a poster for an animated movie on the outside. 

You and Donghyuck walk to the cashier, and it suddenly hits you how weird it is that only one cashier is working. 

“Do you know what you want, y/n?” 

“Oh I don’t know, I didn’t get anything last time I went.” 

“What?” Donghyuck gasps. “No, we can’t be having that.” 

You smile at his dramatic reaction, opening your mouth to defend yourself. 

“Your friend is right Miss,” the cashier – a girl around your age – says, cutting you off with a warm smile. “I’ll give you one thing on the house.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t. Plus, we already have a-” you pause, trying to think of the word. You laugh quietly at yourself as nothing seems to come to mind. _Note to self, English lessons are not good for Korean._ “Thing. We have a thing.” 

Donghyuck laughs with you, and you’re happy to see the cashier chuckling softly as well. But you’re pretty sure that’s because of Donghyuck’s contagious laugh.“And thank you for that, but we're getting you something.” 

He turns his attention back to the cashier. “I don’t mind paying for it, thank you for the offer though.”

She smiles warmly at him, waving her hands in front of her. “No, we have to right this wrong. And if I have to personally pay for this one thing, so be it.” 

Donghyuck nods his head dramatically, and without turning to look at you, says. “You heard the lady, pick your item or have it picked for you.”

You bring your attention to the cashier, still in disbelief at the sudden team-up. But when you meet her eyes, she simply nods her head at you, warm smile still spread across her face. 

“I never said I wouldn’t get anything,” you mumble, looking down at the display case in defeat. After a quick scan of the contents in the case, you look back up at the cashier. “Can I have something with chocolate, please? I don’t know what most of these are.”

She nods her head, already moving to open the case. “One thing with chocolate coming right up.” 

“Good job, y/n, I knew you could do it,” Donghyuck says, patting your back in mock congratulations. 

“Let me tell you something Lee Donghyuck.” You whack his arm away from you, pointing at him for dramatic effect. “I don’t like losing, and you can ask Mark about this. I’ll get you back for this.” 

He smirks, pushing your finger away from him. “If this is what you call losing, I’m excited to see how you ‘get me back.’”

\---

Donghyuck hadn’t meant to lie, not at first. As dramatic as he was, he never lied; it was a personal pet peeve of his.

But after spending a lot of time with you touring the campus and sitting through boring introductions, he had learned that you were pretty self-sufficient. 

And by that, he meant you never let him pay for things. 

Whenever he tried to buy you a drink from the coffee shop by the auditorium, you always paid for yourself. And whenever he just surprised you with a treat of some kind, you’d either show up the next day with a surprise of your own. 

He found it the strangest thing. 

And so, he took it upon himself to get you to let him pay for something. At first, he just tried the simple “don’t worry about paying me back, I don’t mind” trick. But you always insisted that you would pay next time or just shove cash at him. 

He was about to give up, he had been trying ever since he met you to buy you something and had yet to succeed. 

It wasn’t until he was looking at the tickets to a nearby museum that it hit him. If he wasn’t actually paying for it, you couldn’t pay him back. He also realized that if he said everything was paid for by the school, it would be suspicious. It was now a game of picking and choosing. 

When he got the advertisement for the movie, he knew it would be the perfect place to try out his new plan. 

At first, he felt bad about lying, and when he thought of telling you he did it all for some stupid challenge he made up, he felt plain dumb. 

Then he saw how excited you were when you agreed to go to the movies with him, and any thought of telling you disappeared.

He knows offering to pay for dinner might have been too much, especially if he told you he lied about the school paying for it. But when you said you hadn’t been to the movies in a long time, he wanted to make it special for you. 

A lifetime of not lying can excuse this one time, especially if it’s for a good cause.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that took so long! I had exams and writer's block working against me. Anyways, thank you to @pastelsicheng for helping me edit this! I would love to know what you thought about this and I hope you all have a great day/night!


End file.
